Lost in a Good Way
by MagnanimousMoony
Summary: Kida and Bonnie were at a Renaissance fair when she fell into the story Lord of the Rings. Of course Kida comes to terms with that and when it doesn't seem to be a dream she takes part in the journey. She knows the story very well so imagine her surprise when something very big changes, and it could only be her fault. 10th walker OCfic w/ Aragorn. M for future.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

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Never go to sleep at a Renaissance fair. That was what Kida took out of the experience of waking up, hanging upside down with her feet tied to a wood bar across the dirt road. Only she didn't remember falling asleep, or even recognize this part of the fair grounds. After waking she felt her back to see her violin was still tied to her, the bow of it still tucked tightly into her high boot. She wondered where Bonnie was and why that bitch let her be tied up.

At least Kida had decided to were pants this year when she went to the fair. People walked by where she was hanging slowly and without interest of what was going on with her. She didn't even know what was going on. Years of going to fairs and Kida had seen dozens of people in the stocks, but never tied by their feet and ankles on a beam. There was no chance of her getting out of it alone.

"Can somebody let me down?" She called out in frustration, swinging to try and grab her tied feet. The people ignored her. "Let me down! I don't even know what I did!"

Usually a person had to break a fair rule to be locked up or tied in anyway. She had never broken those laws before. "Bonnie! Where are you?" She yelled secondly.

There was a scurrying down the outside of her pants leg. Kida put her hands out and Bonnie, her pet squirrel, fell into her palms. "How could you let this happen, Bonnie? Bite some fingers, woman!" Kida yelled at the little tawny squirrel.

It made a small squeak sound at her, curling it's tail around her hands, hitting Kida in the face. "Careful! I swear, if you're the one that broke a law and blamed me, I'll skin you." She complained to Bonnie.

"You didn't break a law." A male voice said. She turned her head and they were directly face to face. That made Kida realize exactly his Hugh up she was. "They think you a dark Mage, as you fell hard from the sky, asleep."

She barely heard a word, too focused on trying to remember why he looked familiar. "I can let you down. The town is only suspicious but they are not thinking of punishment." He went on.

"Yes! Please, before all the blood goes to my head and I get an aneurism." She agreed quickly. The man gave her an odd look before he went over to the side of the road where the Beam was attached to.

He climbed up with ease and across to where her feet were tied. Kida felt her heart start thumping with nerves as he began to untie her, hoping he didn't let her fall on her head. Just as it began to loosen he grabbed her ankle and held her there. She was watching vigilantly so when he held his hand out she was quick to force herself up and grab it, Bonnie crawling to her shoulder. He pulled her right up while the rest of the ropes fell away, freeing her.

Kida sat on the beam, feeling light headed but better than she was hanging. "How did they get me this high up?" She asked as the man arranged himself to sit with her. Bonnie scurried off of her shoulder and sniffed at the man's hand.

"They hoisted you up by your ankles. What is this thing?" The man asked in turn and nicked Bonnie's chin with his knuckle. The little thing squeaked and put her head on his hand as if inviting him to do it again.

Kida pulled Bonnie's tail. "She's too friendly with strangers, that's what." She glared at the squirrel that let her be tied up and now seemed to be flirting with the man who kept petting her chin. "Her name's Bonnie. She's just a squirrel."

"Interesting." The man rumbled the word lowly, the squirrel crawling into his lap and sprawling up to put her front paws on his chest. Kida rubbed her head as the blood left it and she felt a dull throbbing.

Still looking around, from this high up, Kida had yet to figure out what part of the fair grounds this was. "So where am I?" She asked.

She felt the man looking at her and saw that Bonnie felt ignored, trying to grab his face. "Bree." He answered easily.

"Ha, and where is that?" She still didn't understand. Bree wasn't one of the sections, if she remembered the fair map correctly.

She expected him to say it was by the parking lot or near whatever street, instead he went on. "Bree-land? We're west of Combe, south of Archet. The Shire is far east." He listed off.

Kida thought it was a joke. A really good joke, that this was Middle Earth, until she realized that this guy was so familiar because it wasn't a joke. She screamed and nearly fell off the beam, the man having to grab her. "Holy crap! Aragorn!" She screamed, hanging with his hand around hers, barely staying up.

"How do you know my name?" He settled her with a cold glare.

Kida was up again, but she stilled her nerves and jumped down from the beam, hurting her ankle but not twisting anything. She felt Bonnie fall on her shoulder, and then heard the man, Aragorn's spitting image, land next to her. He grabbed her with both hands twisted into the front of his shirt.

"Explain yourself." He growled to her.

Kida felt nothing but panic. If she had thought that her heart had been quick before, it was beyond racing now. "This is Middle Earth." She started and he nodded, her panic coming out quick in a rambling. "Oh my God, I'm in Middle Earth. This isn't a joke, some crazy joke. I was tied up, and I'm in a different place, oh my God. I'm not even from Middle Earth!"

Aragorn let go of her. "Then where are you from?" There was warning in his voice and his hand was on the hilt of his sword.

"Oh!" Kida realized her mistake. She was already expected to be a dark mage or something, and being from a normal world where this was a book wouldn't help her case. "Um, just, I don't know. I think my memory is messed up?" She lied, unsure.

He eased up. "I don't believe you, but you are not my problem. I have places to go." He turned away from her and started walking away, towards the inn.

No, no way. Kida couldn't be left alone right now. She was in a different world, her favorite fictional place, and clearly freaking out. She didn't even know if this was before, after, or during the books. Holding onto Bonnie she ran after him, feeling her violin thump her back. In a moment she was in front of Aragorn, walking backwards.

"Hold on, please! I just want to ask you maybe two things, really." She pleaded. He stopped walking and looked at her expectantly. "How old are you?"

There was a moment of pause. Then he answered with a half smile. "86." He said like he expected her to be surprised.

Kida wasn't, though. It just meant that she was at the beginning of the books. She held up a finger. "Second question. Can I go with you?"

"That is a lot to ask." He frowned at her and walked past. She followed him anyway.

"I know, but it is only one question! Please?"

Aragorn grabbed her again, but this time, around the shoulder, tightly. "Then you will be quiet. We are going to the inn, and we are waiting for someone." He told her quietly, leading the way.

She nodded but kept her mouth shut. She just followed Aragorn as he lifted the hood of his cloak. They entered the Prancing Pony Inn, full of drinkers and noise, and he led the way to the very corner of the room. All the while Kida couldn't get over what was happening to her. She was beyond impressed and worried, seeing the places so different from the movies, and while Aragorn looked like the actor in the film, there was a difference as well. It took a while to notice it, but their jaw shape, eyes, were so different.

As she sat, Kida took her violin off her back, the little ropes tied to it hanging limply as she placed it in the seat next to her. She slid down into her seat and stayed there quiet like she was told to. Bonnie sat curled around her neck. Aragorn said nothing to her, didn't look at her, so she returned the action and didn't look at him either, looking around the inn or playing silently with Bonnie's tail.

It felt like hours before Aragorn's posture changed in the slightest and something had caught his attention. Kida watched as he lit a long pipe and then followed his gaze over to where he was looking. Barely visible behind the people were four, waist height children. Not children, Kida told herself, knowing this part of the movie. Hobbits.

The longer she watched, the more she could tell them apart. Frodo, the blonde Sam, Merry and Pippin. For several minutes, Aragorn never looked away because he had a job to do, while Kida just stared in interest. Pure interest, because if she had any doubts that this was possibly still a joke, she was sure now it wasn't. They weren't perfectly proportioned men that age and size possibly alive where she was from.

She saw the boys notice her and Aragorn. Mostly Aragorn, because she quickly looked away, ignoring that Bonnie was climbed to the top of her head. Usually she wouldn't allow it, but she felt too odd to try and stop the squirrel. Then dread hit her stomach hard as she heard the loud Pippin talking to what may as well have been the entire inn.

"Frodo Baggins. He's my second cousin once removed, on his mother's side and my third cousin twice removed on his father's side...if you follow me." He announced to the stranger he was talking to.

Then it all happened and Kida had to look back. Frodo pulling on Pippin, Pippin pushing him, and then Frodo falling to the ground. Her heart felt as twisted as her gut as she barely saw the ring falling in the air and slide onto his finger. Everyone fell incredibly silent as he went invisible. Almost immediately Aragorn jumped up to his feet and Kida followed, watching the ranger pulled at empty air and then pushing a visible boy against the wall at the opposite side of the inn they had been seated.

"You draw far too much attention to yourself, Mr. Underhill." Aragorn said while looming over him.

Kida watched him pull the hobbit up the stairs and went to get her violin before she followed. She was also followed up by the three protective looking hobbits. But she barged into the room first, stepping off to the side when she saw Aragorn with his sword drawn. Sam barred his fists, looking ridiculously small.

"You let him go or I'll have you, Longshanks!" He yelled, Merry grabbing a candlestick as a weapon and Pippin brandishing a hobbit sized chair. Aragorn sheathed his sword as Kida tied her violin back to her body.

"You have a stout heart, little Hobbit, but that alone won't save you." Aragorn told Sam, who seemed to relax, dropping his fists. Kida knew what was next, heart beating with anticipation. Aragorn turned back to Frodo. "You can no longer wait for the Wizard, Frodo. They're coming."

Ringwraiths. Kida began stuffing the beds with pillows without order, to make it look like sleeping bodies. She had down it a thousand times when she lived at home and snuck out at night. She knew how to make a convincing mound, but made them smaller this time around. Just as she finished the first bed, Aragorn grabbed her upper arm and stopped her from moving to the next.

"It is time for you to leave, girl. This is dangerous for you." He glowered down at her.

Kida pulled away, Bonnie gripping as the squirrel almost fell off her shoulder. "The hell I will. You said I could go with you, and I am not leaving yet." She shoved a finger in his face. "And I'm a trained sword fighter. I won an award for it two years ago in Vermont."

"It seems your memory is perfectly in tact." He spoke in a condescending tone. Kida froze as she remembered her lie.

"Oh, yeah, sure." She muttered and stepped past Pippin to the second bed. "Whatever. Just help me stuff the beds and hide the hobbits. I don't know how much time we have."

The hobbits helped but Aragorn just stared down at her. "And how do you know what is going to happen, girl?" He asked her.

Kida stood up and waved her hand through the air. "Let's call me very educated. And, by the way, stop calling me girl. My name is Kida." She sassed him. "Kida Valentine. And at twenty-two I am no girl."

"Compared to me-" Aragorn began with a smirk and she turned fully to him.

"Compared to you my mother would be a girl, and she's fifty. But that doesn't mean it's alright to call me or her anything you'd call a child." Kida complained.

The beds were stuffed and Aragorn just kept his smirk as he led the hobbits and Kida to a room across the road of the inn. The hobbits tucked in to his bed at his insistence and while Kida refused to do the same with the four, she sat with Aragorn by the window. It was a while later, when the boys save for Frodo were asleep, when Aragorn finally spoke in a small whisper.

"How do you know as much as you do?" He asked Kida. He had Bonnie in his hands, the squirrel weaving between his fingers as he tried to grip her. The squirrel was obviously trying to get to his face, and he kept her running in his moving hands. "Who educated you?"

Kida had to think before she came up with an answer, smiling. "A man named Tolkien." She didn't even have to lie, so there was no doubt in her voice. "And maybe I just know things. Instinct, sorta."

Aragorn blew in the face of the little squirrel. "A clairvoyant, possibly?" He asked.

"Um, sure. That sounds normal." She rolled her eyes and stared out the window.

Frodo sat up and spoke in a small voice. "Do you know what's going to happen to me?" He asked her as he climbed out of the bed, not disturbing any of his friends.

Kida felt a horrible guilt. Yes. He would go through a lot, go a little insane, be driven to solitude with Sam all because he wasn't safe with the ring. So much would happen and she couldn't tell him details. It felt like cheating. She knew they could get through the book without her, so telling them details might change all that. She forced herself to smile as he sat in a chair too large for him.

"It doesn't work like that." She spoke nervously. A comforting hand went out and pat him on the shoulder. "But you'll be fine."

He sank into the large chair. Frodo didn't look entirely convinced, or at all comforted. Kida felt worse looking at him and she squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't do this. She couldn't live her favorite story. Just watching the movie made her feel all this pain and anticipation, and now she was in it, wanting to practically die.

And she very well could along this trip. She knew who would, what would happen. Kida could die, in a second, at any point. Maybe tonight when the ringwraiths came, if she wasn't careful. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself not to panic, not to leave the room she knew was safe, and open her eyes. Aragorn was looking at her with slight concern, and Frodo was too distracted with Bonnie to notice. The squirrel looked so large compared to the hobbit, curling in Frodo's lap.

Aragorn looked like he might open his mouth to speak, but then the three of them heard hoof beats. Ringwraiths. Kida moved away from the window, on her knees in front of Frodo, and shushed Frodo as his mouth opened. Aragorn watched out of the window. The ringwraiths moved into the inn across the way, and Kida imagined their footsteps, timed it, knew when they would be stabbing into the beds. Then a loud, high shriek that startled Kida even though she expected it. The sound was nothing like the one in the movie.

Sam gasped awake and sat up. More shrieking followed, Merry and Pippin startling up as well. Kida put her finger to her mouth while looking at them just to make sure they'd stay silent. As the wringwraiths left Frodo moved to the window to watch them ride off in fury.

"What are they?" Frodo asked Aragorn.

He quickly glanced at Frodo and then looked away. "They were once men. Great Kings of men. Then Sauron the deceiver gave to them Nine Rings of Power. Blinded by their greed they took them without question, one by one falling into darkness and now they are slaves to his will. They are the Nazgul, Ringwraiths, neither living or dead. At all times they feel the presence of the ring... Drawn to the power of the one. They will never stop hunting you."

Kida felt a weight at that statement. It felt threatening, and she picked Bonnie up from the chair she perched in. She sat against the wall, holding her squirrel and watching Aragorn forcing Frodo back into the bed. Now that they were safe he left the room momentarily. When he came back he had a pillow and blanket, and held them out to Kida. She gave in and set up a bed next to her violin.

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**an/ **so please review if you like it~! any comments or questions... im desperate haha


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

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The journey got more interesting as it grew to the next day. Kida was practically bouncing on her feet as they walked up a clear hill, Bonnie perched on her shoulder and her violin on her back. She talked lively with the hobbits for a while and had started the day leading the pony, Bill, until Sam offered to take over instead. Then she had trotted up to Aragorn, who led them with a long stride and a good wit about where they were going.

"Where are you taking us?" Frodo asked Aragorn.

The answer was vague. "Into the wild." He said and ducked into some trees.

Kida laughed and followed. "Yes because that's an appropriate response. We're already in the wild, be more descriptive, man!" She teased.

Behind them she heard the whispering, which meant so did Aragorn even as he glared her down. "How do we know this Strider is a friend of Gandalf?" Merry said in a hush. "And this Kida girl is alright, but that could change."

"We have no choice but to trust him." Frodo whispered back to him.

Aragorn only reacted by leaning in really close to Kida and whispering. "Do you trust me?" So much quieter than the hobbits, that the four probably didn't hear.

"Apparently." Kida mocked, taking a long step over a mess of roots. "Do you trust me?" She asked back, but he didn't answer.

"But where is he leading us?" Sam asked, a bit louder than either of the two, and louder than Frodo had whispered.

"To Rivendell, Master Gamgee." Aragorn answered factually, not even looking back as he did. "To the house of Elrond."

Kida looked back for the sole sake of seeing Sam's excited face. It made her giggle and look forward again. "Did you hear that Bill? Rivendell! We're going to see the elves." Sam spoke to the pony as they reached the gloom of the forest.

"Have you ever met elves?" Aragorn asked Kida and she looked at him, having to nudged Bonnie out of the way of her view to do so. The man barely gave her a glance after the question, continuing uphill.

Considering elves didn't actually exist in her world, she shook her head. "Nope. No." She corrected the slang in case it made no sense. "But I know a lot."

Aragorn nodded. "Because of this Tolkien fellow, correct?" He stated.

She wasn't surprised he remembered. She probably looked like an insane outsider to all of them. If it were her, who had seen the outsider, she would try to memorize as much as she could about what they said so that she wouldn't be caught off guard. It was how she was at renaissance fairs, keeping track of the characters she met as well as her own.

"Yes. He knows everything about them, from Rivendell to Mirkwood and more." She grinned, not at all wrong considering Tolkien created this world she was in.

There was a beat of pause. "This man, was he your lover? You speak so fondly of him."

Before he had even finished speaking, Kida was laughing. Hard and full, covering her face, and leaning over herself. "Oh God no! No way!" She laughed and barely calmed before adding, "I just think he's really, I don't know, brilliant. I'm a fan, not a lover. Besides, he's long dead."

"That is interesting." Aragorn spoke to himself and led on as her giggling died down.

They walked for not much longer and were out of the trees again. Without words Aragorn went to Bill and came back to lead the group with a cloak that he put around Kida's shoulders. She was thankful because it was cold and bundled up in it. Bonnie took advantage of Kida by hiding under her hair all this time and at the feel of being wrapped up relaxed even more.

They walked longer through windswept shrubbery and moors. Aragorn paused hardly a moment to look at the land in front of them, Kida humming to herself at his side while kicking at the snow, when the hobbits began to unstrap their knapsacks. They both looked back and noticed the unpacking going on.

"Gentlemen, we do not stop until nightfall." Aragorn told them. The four looked at him the moment he spoke, all hunched to find food.

"What about breakfast?" Pippin squeaked out and Kida giggled as she remembered this part of the movie.

The man stood posed and still, hand rest on his sword. "You've already had it." He responded quickly.

"We've had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?" Pippin asked, a pan already in his hand, Merry watching his face.

Aragorn stared at him blankly, Kida just watching, before he walked away, shaking his head. Kida could barely here the hobbit begging about other meals of the day as she followed Aragorn. She saw him take two apples out of his bag and throw them over the bush that now separated them from the packing hobbits. The second one she knew hit Pippin in the head when she heard Merry call his name.

They walked on. Kida found it incredible how different everything looked from the movie. Sure, there was still snow, but it covered more of the green grass as they walked, and the bushes were bigger and gave less of a path. It meant nobody could trail behind too far or they would get lost from the group, and she often slowed to make sure that didn't happen, and kept humming so maybe someone could hear her if they couldn't see her.

Frodo caught up to her and was right at her side for a while. "You play the fiddle." He stated with a look to her back and the bow that had long been rubbing up her leg in her boot.

Kida forgot that violins were something they had in Middle Earth. She hadn't touched her instrument thinking it wasn't common to have it, if anyone knew what it was. But she smiled down at the hobbit. "Yes, since I was a kid."

For once he looked up not looking as if this journey had taken a toll on him or he was over-thinking something. "Won't you play it for us?" He asked as Bonnie jumped onto his shoulder.

She looked at Aragorn, his back to her as he walked on. "I think it's not a good time. Maybe tonight. If it's safe enough." She answered, thinking only that she didn't remember anything happening to the group yet.

"I look forward to it." Frodo smiled and then fell back to walk with Sam, still carrying the squirrel. Kida felt brighter as well, and hummed a happier song.

They made camp hours later, never stopping longer than the time it took to throw an apple at any hobbit who was hungry. Everyone seemed tired, and even Kida was a bit worn, kicking off her boots in annoyance. They dribbled out what looked like a liter of water from walking through the swamp. Aragorn had the camp slightly set up when he grabbed a bow and several arrows.

He looked down at Kida, who was rubbing her feet, and she looked up at him. "You watch the hobbits. There is a sword in my pack meant for you if needed." He ordered of her.

"Does this mean you trust me?" She asked playfully, remembering that he never answered her before.

The question only amused him. "Hardly, but I won't be too far that I couldn't kill you if you pulled anything." Her smiled fell and her foot fell back to the ground. He walked away to hunt for food.

Kida crawled to his pack and took the sword there just in case. She felt Aragorn was joking, but it was a easily creepy thing to say. "You're not really going to do anything, are you?" Sam asked her skeptically as she tied the sword's sheath to her costume's belt.

"No!" She spat out quickly, not meaning it to look that way. "I just want it handy in case something happens! But I'm sure nothing will." She added quickly.

When Aragorn returned, he had the expected dead deer over his shoulder. "Disgusting." Kida stated as he dropped it down, seeing the wound and the arrow still in it.

"Dinner." Aragorn stated. As he began cutting she took her violin and turned away.

She didn't think she could eat the poor deer. Kida grew up watching Bambi and simply attached to the idea that killing wild animals was wrong. It was why she had Bonnie, after all. Someone had run over her tail, and Kida took the squirrel to a vet rather than to think it might possibly die. After that it was just another pet, like someone may have a dog or cat.

As he cooked it her suspicions were right. It didn't even smell good, that was how against it she was. Instead Kida went for an apple for dinner, thinking that she could live off whatever was a plant on their damned journey if need be. Bonnie nibbled on bits of the apple core when Kida was done with it. Eating deer, Frodo looked at her across the campfire.

"Won't you play now?" He asked her, sounding eager.

She remembered her violin and looked at it before turning back to Aragorn. "Do you mind?" Kida asked and pointed at the instrument.

"Let her!" Sam suggested and Merry and Pippin pleaded along. "Come on, Strider."

The ranger's mouth pressed into a thin line. "It's four against one. It seems I have no choice. But nothing too loud." He agreed and shoved a bit of deer into his mouth.

The four boys cheered and Kida picked up the wooden violin and bow. "Well that sort of eliminates half the things I can play." She murmured, but she had the right things in mind.

Of all the things she knew how to play, she knew the songs from the movies very well. She decided on a medley of several that she had learned. It began light and cheerful, the part of the music meant for the shire. But then she changed it. It grew intense with songs that were meant for battle, for homes, for people. Sad, angry, happy, light. Every emotion was caught.

She played for several long minutes concentrating only on the notes she played, the sound in her ears brilliantly moving. For half a moment she looked around and saw she captivated the attentions of all five men. It almost distracted her, but Kida closed her eyes and plaid the last few notes. She felt incredibly serene as she finished and put her violin down to see the reaction of the men.

"I've got chills." Sam said and rubbed his arms.

Frodo was staring into the fire a bit fondly. "The first part reminded me of home." He said generally.

Aragorn had his hand up, his thumb rubbing over his mouth. He didn't say anything, but his eyes did flicker over to Kida for a moment when she had been watching his face. He of course looked away quickly and sat a bit straighter than he had been.

"It's best if you all sleep now. We will be moving just after sunrise." He told them all, back in order and sounding stern.

Kida watched the hobbits get into their blankets and waited a while to do the same. But sleep didn't come for her. All she could think was that somewhere, this moment, Gandalf was on a tower, stranded, and orcs were tearing down the trees. Causing pain and wreaking utter havoc to watch the world burn. Eventually, later into the night, she was lulled into a rest as Aragorn started singing to himself. It wasn't that loud, and she hadn't been in the right mind to understand it, but it was exactly what she needed to fall asleep.

* * *

Kida woke up first. Just a while before sunrise, and to see that Aragorn was sleeping sitting upright next to where she had made a bed. The fire was out so it was almost completely dark as she got up, trying to be quiet. Which proved to be nearly impossible as she stumbled and nearly stepped on Bonnie, who had curled at the end of Kida's blanket. The little squirrel only lifted her head for a second before going back to sleep.

Just five or so feet away from the camp Kida stretched long and hard. She was used to a mattress, but had twice now slept on the ground, this time being outside in a swamp. But it was one of the safest places, she figured, twisting. Her back popped several times and she sighed in the relief and pain it brought simultaneously. Under her shirt her bra really itched from not being taken off.

Kida looked at the hobbits and Aragorn, confirming they were all asleep before she walked off another forty or so feet in the direction they came. Pulling her arms into her shirt she took the bra off. It felt freeing to do so, and then just entertaining to stretch the elastic and fling it far into the distance. No woman had bras in middle earth that she knew of anyway, so it was no problem that she got rid of hers. It wasn't even as if her chest was big enough for it to make a difference.

Strolling back to the camp she felt a lot better and also colder, and planned to pull on her cloak and wrap up in her blanket. Before she could do either Aragorn was standing up from his seated sleep, completely awake and standing in her way.

"Where did you go?" He asked her stiffly and she saw he still didn't trust her.

It was unsettling not to be trusted and confronted like this, but it must have been just as unsettling for him to have her wander off with a sword still on her belt. "To do a girl thing." She answered vaguely, not meeting his eyes.

"Do nothing if I am asleep other than wake me. It isn't safe to wander alone." Aragorn scolded her and looked to where the sky was beginning to change color. Kida scuff her boot into the ground awkwardly. "We can start a fire now. It is light enough to not be noticed in this fog."

At that she gladly helped light it by literally rubbing rocks together. Well, flint, which did spark, but it was hard to get another to catch when all the grass or twigs were half damp from the bog around them. Her constant hitting the flint together woke the hobbits one by one, save for Pippin. He didn't even stir until there was food cooking and the smell had reached him.

After eating quickly, Kida skipping over the left over deer meat, they were on the move again. They were out of the swamp by the time the sun fully rose and it very slowly dried their wet clothes. Behind Kida and Aragorn the hobbits talked for nearly the entire morning, and she felt left out but she didn't know what they were talking about. She ended up looking at Aragorn and risking him to tell her to shut up.

"Why don't you trust me?" She asked him. He checked his way before looking at her very briefly. Of course his gaze didn't change from analytic as he did, then looking back in front of him. Before he could answer, Kida stopped. "Never mind. I'll walk in the back."

She waited until the hobbits and Bill, the pony passed her. Walking ten feet behind them all, thirty behind Aragorn in full, Kida had exiled herself. For the first time she wanted to be home so bad. She still didn't understand why she was here, how she got here, but she was, and it was hard. Certainly the hobbits liked her, and she liked them and all that was going on, but it wasn't like her world.

She couldn't call up her friends or family. Visit her mom on a weekend. Part of Kida almost missed her job at the bookstore. Talking to people for more than an hour or two a day, because if you combined all her few minutes chats with the men in front of her, that was all it added up to. All she had from her life, truly now since the clothes she wore were a costume, was Bonnie. The squirrel that didn't talk and now spent almost all their walking time on Bill the pony.

Kida got bored as the sun was high in the sky, maybe around noon. She sang to herself in elvish, because she was on her way to Rivendell, might as well brush up on the language she learned five whole years ago.

"I ngîl cennin erthiel _(I saw a star rise high in the)_  
Ne menel aduial, _(Evening sky)_  
Ha glingant be vîr _(It hung like a jewel)_  
Síliel moe _(Softly shining)._"

She didn't notice the hobbits look back at her and keep on walking. They listened with interest and wondering what it meant. In Frodo's opinion her voice was great and light and drawling. It sounded perfect for the obviously elvish chanting, slow and sweet. In front of them, even farther away and out of normal ear shot, Aragorn could hear it as well, as his hearing was better than a normal humans.

He hummed to himself to the melody, knowing the song. It was Twilight and Shadow. A not very popular elvish song. But the elves didn't often share there songs, and he wondered how it was Kida, as a human who had never met an elf, knew it. Likely that Tolkien guy she had mentioned.

"I ngîl cennin firiel_ (I saw a star fade in the)_  
Ne menel aduial, _(Evening sky)_  
And-dúr naun i fuin a galad firn _(The dark was too deep and so light died)_  
Naegriel moe _(Softly pining)._"

Aragorn slowed his walking only slightly and joined in to the last verse. His low voice was only audible to his own ears, and he preferred it that way. The song had touched him every time he heard it and preferred not to be outed to the hobbits and girl as emotional in any way.

"An i natha _(For what might have been)_  
An i naun ului _(For what never was)_  
A chuil, ann-cuiannen_ (For a life, long lived)_  
Am meleth, perónen _(For a love half given)_."

The last two lines were barely under Kida's breath. She had noticed who was looking as she sang and grew self concious. She hadn't thought that they could hear her very well, but in the time she had been distracted everyone slowed and she was much closer to the hobbits. Feeling embarrassed she though herself better off forcing her way to the front again. She caught up with Aragorn and stayed silent by his side for a long time.

* * *

**AN/ review please people! it makes me happy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Kida realized the day it was before they came to a hill with a large, odd ruin on top of it. "This was once the great watchtower of Amon Sul." Aragorn recited as they got closer to it. "We shall rest here tonight."

"Super." Kida said under her breath, nervous.

She knew one way or another she'd end up in arms reach of a Nazgul tonight. It was inevitable, and she couldn't tell anyone about it because that could get one of them killed or change the entire story line. A true nerd inside and out, she was a firm believer in not changing story lines. Of course that was usually when someone traveled in time, but she felt it worked very well for this situation.

Kida sat away from everyone else when they were inside. It was still just light out, but nobody made a fire. Their being slightly inside blocked the wind from chilling them too much. The hobbits chatted and asked her to play violin again, but she refused and moved a little further away. Then the moment came where Aragorn announced he would be going to take a look around, leaving behind swords for the hobbits.

On his way out he had to pass by Kida. His quick step faltered near her and he paused, looking down. "You are not very lively today, Kida. Why are you being so distant?" He asked her.

It would have been sweet if he tried to sound like he actually cared. There was hardly any feeling to his voice as he looked at her. She didn't return the eye contact, unless staring at the bottom of his pant legs counted at all.

"I'm not being distant." She lied, knowing there was at least ten yards between her and the camp Aragorn had created.

He actually scoffed at her. "Since I have met you, you have made noise and conversation every change you got. Today you haven't spoken a word to me since morning, and not to the boys in a few hours at least." Aragorn pointed out. "There is something wrong with you."

She glared at his boot until Aragorn kneeled in front of her. "Have you had a bout of clairvoyance?" He asked her in a low tone, interested. Of course that was the only thing he was really curious about.

"No!" Kida denied quickly. Because at the end of this when Frodo got hurt because she didn't or couldn't protect him, Aragorn would likely blame her for not telling him what would happen. "Just go already."

Before leaving he shuffled closer. Kida let out a small scream as he lifted her up over his shoulder. He was taking her with him, obviously, as they went down the steep path to the outside of the ruin. He didn't put her down even as they started down the hill. She was pushing on his and trying to get free but the ranger was stronger than the city girl could hope to be and held her tight on his shoulder like a sack.

"Will you put me down already?" She yelled at him when it got too tiring to try and kick him. They had just spent an entire day hiking after all.

Aragorn shifted her. "Alright." He chuckled and when he put her down, he really threw her. Kida hit water.

Deep, freezing cold water that sucked her up. Frantically she swam up to the surface, gasping when she hit air because she hadn't known to hold her breath. Next to the edge of the small pond, Aragorn sat in a crouch with his eyes on her. Kida glared and splashed towards him, missing pathetically. She trudged out of the water, shivering, far away from the man who threw her in there. All of her was soaked through, even the cloak meant to keep her warm.

"You suck!" Kida barked out and peeled off her cloak to ring out the water.

Aragorn stood and looked at her. "I don't know what you mean by that." He said in terms of her phrase. Kida had forgotten that it was a purely normal world phrase.

"It means you suck! That you're mean, a spoilsport, a jerk, and are just no fun!" She babbled, teeth beginning to chatter. "Okay, a little fun, but I'm mad at you."

The man came up and took the cloak from her, wringing it much faster than her little hands could. "Well at least now you're acting like yourself." He smirked at Kida.

Kida didn't let up on her glare but turned her back to him. She pulled off her shirt, deciding to really ignore her nudity as she squeezed all the water out of it. In her mind it wasn't a big deal. They had been traveling together, and this was as close to a bath as she had gotten, and she hardly cared if he saw her bare back. She was confident he wouldn't look or do anything because she knew very well that he was with Arwen.

"Why is your hair so short?" Aragorn asked out of nowhere.

Kida shyly looked over her shoulder, careful not to turn. She fingered her wet, shoulder length blonde hair. "My mother cut it. She says that when it gets long I look fat."

"But you are far too thin." He draped her cold, heavy cloak over her shoulders, the majority of the water out of it. Kida laughed to herself as she looked down at herself.

"Where I'm from, you're only too thin if you can see every rib you have through your skin." She said mostly truthfully. She was from Chicago. Everyone in America had body issues, and she was just above what she should be. "Either way, I can eat my weight in cake and not gain a pound."

Kida pulled on her shirt, struggling to do so while keeping the cloak on. "I don't think that's physically possible." Aragorn mentioned as she began kicking off her pants.

"Oh yeah? If you ever came to my house on Christmas you would know better." She laughed and watched her pants drip for a moment.

It was getting darker each second so she was quick to get as much water out of them as she could before nerves made her put her pants back on. Any minute the ringwraiths would see the fire and attack. She turned back to Aragorn and when she said they should go back he lifted his hand to stop her.

"There, you're acting differently again." His finger pointed at her as Kida looked back at the ruin. It was father away than she thought, and she was on the wrong side to see any fire, but she didn't want to act so differently either.

Her arms crossed over her chest. "Well then where do you want to go?" She asked him. "I follow you all day, you know I'll follow you now if you want."

His look said one thing: good. Aragorn lit a torch and led the way, away from the ruin, with Kida trailed after him. It was incredibly unnerving, to be walking away from trouble she knew would happen. She should have done more to get away from Aragorn and stayed with the boys. For the while they were walking, Aragorn was looking around intentionally, not telling Kida anything, as was the usual.

It was later than Kida expected when they finally heard the shriek of the ringwraiths. "Nazgul." Aragorn stated in shock and broke out into a run.

Kida ran after him. She was suddenly glad for high school gym, making her run the mile every week, because she was just behind the ranger the entire way. They ran all the way to the top, and Kida was certain that the timing was off as Aragorn jumped in front of the ringwraiths with his sword and torch. they were early, and Frodo was still invisible, the one Nazgul hovering him, hand out. He wasn't stabbed yet, obviously.

It felt wrong to stand there, and despite everything in her yelling not to interfere, Kida jumped the ringwraith just as it drew his sword. It was like jumping on a standing skeleton, there was hardly anything to the man under the robes. She gasped and rolled away thinking it would attack her back with his poison sword, but there was no sword in his hand.

Kida's stomach dropped heavily as she turned around. Frodo was visible and gasping, his shoulder cut but not as badly as she expected, the sword lying next to him. Even when she tired to stop it, the sword had fallen and cut him anyway. It seemed nothing she could do would change what was supposed to happen. She was startled back into the moment as the sword was picked up, and she jumped back, drawing her sword, but it wasn't the nazgul. All of them were gone, and it was Aragorn who picked up the poisoned sword.

"Help him, Strider!" Sam yelled, him and Aragorn kneeling by the gasping hobbit.

The ranger's face was grim and Kida fell back onto her bottom. This was horrible. This was ten times worse than she ever felt reading a book or watching a movie.

"He's been stabbed by a Morgul blade." He said, and the blade melted over itself. It vanished and he threw down the hilt in true disgust.

It landed near Kida's feet. "Do something!" Sam cried desperately.

Kida swallowed as she heard the answer she already knew would come. "This is beyond my skill to heal. He needs elvish medicine."

He hoisted Frodo up on his shoulder. They left quickly. There was no time to pack anything not valuable, and Kida only grabbed her violin and located Bonnie before taking a few of Aragorn's things. They traveled with torches at a jog without rest through most the night.

* * *

They stopped in the Trollshaw Forest. Kida recognized the statues, this moment, though it was as different as it was familiar. Sam nursed Frodo as everyone caught a break. There was a small cry of a ringwraith in the distant, but louder than anyone hoped it to be. Kida even flinched.

"They're close." Merry said nervously.

Kida pushed her hair out of her face and was surprised her cheeks were wet. She hadn't even known she had been crying, and rubbed her cheeks ferociously.

Aragorn went to Sam. "Sam, do you know the Athelas plant?"

"Athelas?" Sam responded with a blank look.

"Kingsfoil." Kida piped up before Aragorn could. She didn't care any more about possibly changing things. She felt that she couldn't. Besides, there was no harm in taking one line from a person.

"Kingsfoil. Aye, it's a weed." Sam still seemed truly confused.

Aragorn gestured to the forest. "It may help to slow the poison. Hurry!" He ordered and he and sam disappeared into the thick of green.

Kida crawled over to Frodo. He looked horrible, and she reached out to him, not noticing her hands were shaking. Trying to be comforting she brushed his hair back from his forehead. His eyes looked past her at nothing, Kida seeping with panic, and she rocked herself while running her hand over his hot forehead.

"You'll be okay. I told you, I promised." Kida whispered and sniffled, feeling that she was crying again. Frodo just gasped in pain again and she held his head. "You will live. I know you will. This was meant to happen, and I'm so sorry."

Slowly, like hope descending, Arwen came into their clearing. Kida was shocked at how beautiful she was approaching her and Frodo.

"Frodo, Im Arwen. Telin let thaed. _(I am Arwen, I have come here to help you)_" She said in a wispy voice. Clothes already mudsplattered, she kneeled in front of Frodo. "Lasto Beth nin, tolo Dan na ngalad. _(Hear me voice, come back to the light)_"

Kida watched as Frodo's eyes closed with a wavering. "Le hannon a tholel._ (Thank you for coming)_" Kida said despite herself, looking up at Arwen. The elegant elf looked surprised to hear a human speak elvish, and she smiled very sadly.

"I shall do my best." Arwen didn't promise, she wasn't too confident it seemed.

She stood and turned to Aragorn, who had come up behind her in the clearing. "He's fading. He's not going to last. We must get him to my father." She told him. Aragorn took the hobbit from under Kida's hands and put him on Arwen's horse, a bit more roughly than the movies made that moment look. "I have been looking for you for two days."

"Where are you taking him?" Pippin squeaked and Kida got up from the soft green ground. Bonnie jumped up to the saddle to be with Frodo, who she seemed to favor of the hobbits.

Pippin and the swuirrel went ignored, save for Kida going to Pippin's side. Arwen kept talking to Aragorn, barely audible. "There are five wraiths being you, where the other four are, I do not know."

"Dartho guin berian. Rych le ad tolthathon. _(Stay with the hobbits. I'll send horses for you)_" Aragorn tried to order Arwen. She grabbed the reins of her horse, standing tall to the ranger.

"Hon mabathon._ (I'll take him)_" Arwen told him, her head giving the slightest shake. This didn't unerve Kida like it did in the movies, she was just eager for somebody to save Frodo that she pushed back how little she liked the elf woman. "Rochoh ellint im._ (I'm the faster rider)_"

His hand clamped over hers with heat and weight. "Andelu I ven _(The road is too dangerous)_"

Her lips turned down in a frown. "Frodo fir. Ae anthradon I hir, tur gwaith nin beriatha hon. _(If I can cross the river, the power of my people can protect him)_"

"What are they saying?" Pippin asked a bit loudly for the conversation.

Kida knew, her mind translating it much faster than she could remember the words in the movie, but she didn't answer. She just put her hand on Pippin's shoulder as Arwen told Aragorn she did not fear the wraiths. He let her mount the horse, stepping back a little. It looked so dispassionate compared to the films, compared to what Kida expected from two people who loved each other.

"Arwen, ride hard, don't look back." Aragorn told her and pat the horse. It broke out into a full sprint at her command.

Sam left the line of spectators. "What are you doing? Those wraiths are still out there!" He yelled in pain and heartbreak.

He tried to run at Aragorn, but Kida grabbed Sam and fell to her knees. She held him quite tightly against herself.

"She's saving him, Sam." Kida spoke quickly, very quickly, a little frightened herself. "Frodo is entirely safe with her. Trust _me_ even if you don't trust her."

Aragorn turned on them, drawing his sword and pointing it at them. At Kida, specifically, as the tip followed about throat height of her as she stood up again. Sam stumbled back in fright of the ranger, and Kida wondered what he was doing. She didn't understand it at all. How could he be holding her at sword's tip now when she had done nothing but worried, like any of them?

His arm was strong but his face didn't match the precise look of "battle ready" that his body language held. "What do you know of this? Of what happened, what will happen? I want to know!" He yelled the last part.

Kida felt a sliver of guilt in her chest like a pain. "You can't change things! I tried!" She screamed back at him, stomping her foot.

"And what now? He dies?" He asked stiffly, voice as sharply edged as the blade in his hands.

Her head shook immediately. "No. He lives. I swear he lives, but that's all I can say!" Even in her own ears she could hear how desperate her voice was. "Will you please stop pointing your sword at me?"

Pausing a moment, Aragorn did sheath his sword. He looked down at the ground. "We can camp here. The wraiths will be after Frodo now, not us."

Then he climb on top of the troll statues and sat as the hobbits began making camp. The process was slow and the mood damp. Kida didn't help like she usually would, going to the opposite side of their small clearing, sitting against another troll statue. On the side of it that hid her from the camping hobbits, but not from the ranger who would likely chase her if she hid. She maintained her violin, tightening a few strings and wiping a spray of dirt from it's smooth surface.

Since Aragorn already deemed them safe, she played soft and sad music for herself. Her entire being didn't give a damn if anyone heard her, as she played a song from a musical she knew. A really sad part, one that was played when a character died, and all she could think was what if she was wrong? If she really had done enough to change Frodo's fate, in a bad way, just by being there. It had been a few days since they met, but she had been attached to all of these people for years in the books and movies. She grew up with the stories, and couldn't stand the thought of changing it.

"Manen nalyë? _(How are you)_" She heard Aragorn call across the clearing. Considering she was now the only one around that could speak elvish, she stopped playing and turned her head completely right to see him.

His eyes burrowed into her brown ones. "Im maer. _(I'm well)_" She responded and he leaned forward on the statue he was perched on.

"Then why are you crying?" His eyes searched her face even from the distance.

Kida turned away, rubbing her face and seeing a few drops of tears on her violin. It must have been stress, or the song she was playing. Maybe everything combined. Her heart hurt. Then, on top of that, she could identify a great factor of what was wrong with her. She was homesick.

When she didn't answer Aragorn jumped down from the troll and walked over to her. He also sat hidden behind the statue she was leaning against, but leaving a distance between them big enough to fit an entire person. "If it's my fault, goheno nin. _(Forgive me)_" He whispered to Kida.

She scoffed. "Not your fault." She assured him, still rubbing her face even though it felt completely dry now. Aragorn grabbed her hands to stop the action. "Right, sorry. I'm just really not in my mind."

"Well who's mind would you be in beside your own?" His tone was joking, but the joke fell flat when she didn't react to it. Aragorn fell as silent as death.

Kida wiped her violin again, this time to get rid of the old tears. "I'm not the kind of girl who blurts out all her troubles the moment someone asks them what's wrong." She stiffened up. It wasn't in her nature to just blurt out all her feelings.

The man looked down at her, she knew he did, but she just stared down at her violin, plucking the strings to keep herself distracted. "And yet you ask for trust, when you won't trust me with the smallest feeling?" Aragorn retorted.

Her eyes widened when she realized he was right. She was a complete hypocrite. "Then what do you want to know?" She asked him, still not looking away from her violin.

* * *

**AN/ So I'm getting tons of reads and only dandapanda reviews, so I love dandapanda more than you jerks who don't bother. Unless you just don't like my story. :O oh no. Please review?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

"Where are you from?" Aragorn started as he was given free range. This girl interested him for days and he was determined to get to the bottom of all that she was.

Kida Valentine tilted her head. "Um, Chicago. It's _across the sea_." The way she said it had him disbelieving, but he had never heard of such a place. either way he didn't know what kind of question to ask about this Chicago place.

He moved on. "And this Tolkien man? What is he to you really? Did he teach you Elvish as well?" Aragorn quizzed her as the thoughts popped up.

"He's a scholar, for lack of a better word." Kida gave a short laugh like she had thought of a joke. Her hand tucked loose yellow hairs behind her ear and Aragorn could see the profile of her petite face. "I idolize him, and no, he didn't teach me. I taught myself, and I don't know a whole lot either, so please don't quiz me on it."

This made him think, just for a moment, that maybe he could teach her what she didn't know. But that felt like such an odd thing for someone who at this point was just a traveling acquaintance. And this Tolkien man, if he had such wisdom, why had Aragorn never heard rumor of his name, even if the man was dead now. According to Kida at least.

He would dwell on it another time, changing subject. "Are you married?"

The girl finally lifted her head to look at him. Her nicely shaped brow was furrowed, as if this was odd. "No! I haven't... been courted by a man in a year, and I never married." She said quickly, defensively.

"Why not? Many women your age have a child or more by now." Aragorn went on without pause. It never crossed his mind this may be a subject not to press for details in. He had a curiosity he rarely had anymore, over this girl.

Kida bit her lip and looked away again. "Um, I'm not exactly wife material, if you hadn't noticed." She picked at the metal strings of her violin. "I sword fight, wear pants, jump on ringwraiths-" she giggled slightly. "And besides, I haven't liked any of the guys who liked me."

He saw her discomfort and took mercy, as he had no more pressing questions about who she courted. When his mouth opened, the first thing on his mind slipped out. "Why do you know my name?"

"Because..." She trailed off with thought and looked up at him. Any upset in her eyes had disappeared, replaced with something similar to pity. "Tolkien told me your story. I don't know how he knows anything, really, so don't ask. But you look like I pictured, sort of."

He frowned. He wanted to know exactly what she told him not to ask. It would do him no well if she didn't know, but it still felt like she was hiding things from him. "Fine." He bit out despite his wishes to not leave it at that alone.

"Any thing else you want to know?" She asked him, turning the tables slightly.

"Plenty." He answered and sat up a little straighter against the rock slab behind them both. "But we will stop for now as soon as you tell me why you were so sad a moment ago."

A long, pregnant pause followed. Like she was trying to think of exactly how to articulate the answer. There seemed to be a lot she had to say, and Aragorn expected it. She had said herself a while ago she wasn't the kind to gush, so this sort of conversation would be new to both of them. Aragorn never tended to ask what was wrong with anyone emotionally.

Kida took a breath before saying anything. "I don't know how to get home. I just sort of appeared, right? So I have no idea why I am here, or how I even got here." She began like ticking things off a list, then moving on. "Then I try and keep Frodo from being hurt, but I can't. Everything will be set in stone and I just feel nothing but all these nerves coursing through me in anticipation of what will happen next."

Now it was Aragorn who was feeling the pity. "So I'm stuck in this place, can't help anyone, and all I have from home is my violin and my squirrel that right now is on a horse somewhere with a half dead Frodo and Arwen. I feel stranded, lonely, left out, and just damn sick." A few tears found their way out her eyes and onto her cheeks.

Aragorn was not a comforting man. He was a ranger. A hunter. A man meant to be king. Far be it for him to claim any emotional brilliance of any kind. Despite that, everything, he closed the space between himself and wrapped his arms around the girl in an embrace. Her warmth seeped into him as his went to her, Kida's arms half snaking around his waist as she ceased her crying.

They sat for a long while because Aragorn couldn't bring himself to let go. Even through hearing the hobbits whisper, through hearing them go to bed. It had been longer than he liked since he held anyone, and that had been Arwen herself. She never liked long embraces and the silks she wore kept her cool to touch. It never felt like this to be with her, and there was this biting regret that he enjoyed Kida's loose hug so much more.

He was growing slightly tired when he realized that the girl against him had been asleep. Her violin had slipped off her lap at some point and he hadn't even noticed it. Aragorn pulled away just enough to place his mouth on her forehead, pausing at the smell of her hair, like nectar and cream. Then he pulled away, leaving a kiss behind on her pale skin.

Careful not to wake Kida he took the time to make her a bed by the embers of a failing fire, moving her violin as he moved her to it. She then lied under a thin blanket, and while Aragorn's attention had been to sleep sitting up at the head of the camp to play guard, he changed his mind. He set it so he could lie next to Kida as she slept. It was unknown to him why he did it, but he went to sleep while looking at her face, even if it was pressed into a soft pack that played pillow, squishing her young features.

* * *

Kida woke up when Merry began nudging her. "We're packing up, Kida." He told her and then walked away.

Sitting up, she was a little confused as her blanket fell off her. She knew she fell asleep when hugging Aragorn. He had to have moved her at some point. Being a good sport about waking up, especially since it was actually a light morning, so they must have slept in some, she was quick to help pack. She carried her violin on her back as usual, and a bag from Bill. Aragorn wanted to lighten up the horse so they could move quickly the next few days.

"At this speed we are less than two days from Rivendell." Aragorn said a few hours in as they continued through the Trollshaws.

Their group was closer together, though Kida stood at the back of it solely to keep the speed up. She didn't want the hobbits to fall behind with their sort legs. It worried her more now that they were in a hurry than it had the last few days, when they could stop and wait for them to catch up. At the very least she made sure that she was still in ear shot of Aragorn when her turned around to tell them anything. That meant she was roughly ten feet from him.

Just after Aragorn said that, Kida tripped over a root with a squeak but managed to keep her footing. "I have not seen this many roots in one place since my Aunt Clara stopped dying her hair!" She mumbled, disgruntled.

"I have no idea what that means." Aragorn called back, obviously hearing her even when it seemed the three much closer hobbits didn't. "But you should watch your step."

Kida laughed and tripped again, almost falling fully this time. But at least she wasn't the only one having trouble as Pippin fell flat on his face. Merry pulled him up roughly and they went on. "Hey Strider! Maybe we should find a safer path to Rivendell." She spoke up to him.

He turned back as the pony huffed, hoof catching slightly. "Alright. Wait here. I will find a better path." Aragorn told them and dropped what he was carrying.

Kida quickly ditched her bag and violin to go after him. She hopped over a rock to get to his side, in the thicket of the forest. "You should have waited with the hobbits." He told her.

"What trouble can they get into? All there is to eat is apples and bread at this point, it's day time. For a moment nobody is after us." Kida listed off and scanned the forest for any sign of a safer path.

She tripped again, Aragorn catching her around the waist just as her hands went out to save herself. "Yes, I meant for your benefit more than theirs. You are very clumsy." He chuckled and steadied her.

Kida got her composure back and stopped helping, watching her feet only. "I'm not usually. I just don't live anywhere near a forest. I am not used to closely compacted trees." She defended herself.

"I can easily believe that." He agreed with a mocking tone.

They walked through at a slight curve in the woods. It felt different, in a really good way, to not be at the back of the group again even though she was still technically following Aragorn in both situations. But eventually even she could get incredibly impatient. Kida went to the lowest hanging branch and jumped up onto it. Aragorn stopped walking when he noticed her gone and looked up at she was nearly halfway to the top of the tree.

"For not having a lot of trees, you sure can climb one like an elf!" He called up, hand cupped around his mouth.

Leaning over a branch, she looked down at him. "I spent four years climbing ropes. Trees are like stairs in comparison." Kida called back, once again thanking gym class in high school.

She climbed up to the top, keeping it in mind where they had come from. Standing on a bending branch, a little nervous, she shoved through a thick of leaves and had peeked out at the endless tree tops. The view was breath taking. Shades of green changing, the trees dipping in height and thickness in places, far out in every direction. Above the trees there was a soft breeze as well, blowing her hair around her face.

She heard the creak of branches and for a moment panicked thinking she was going to fall. Instead Aragorn lifted up a tree away from her, looking much more casual than she did, gripping branches to save her life. He looked over the trees much quicker than she did. He turned to her with a light smirk.

"Enjoying the view?" She smiled as he asked, pushed her hair out of her face.

"Yes!" She agreed breathlessly, looking out to the east again. Never in her life had she seen so many trees, not even when traveling, not even in woodsy Vermont. Vermont had nothing on Middle Earth. "You can't even see the edge of the forest."

"We won't be out of these woods until morning, I believe." Aragorn shifted, leaves rustling, the branch he stood on creaking.

Kida was more excited than she should be. But these two days between Trollshaw and Rivendell were completely unknown for her. She couldn't wait to know what happens, live through it, even if it was just walking and idle chat. It was views like this that made it really worth something. Made her feel like she could live without home for a while longer.

Aragorn seemed to let her have her moment before speaking up. "I found a path. We should get back to the hobbits before they get too relaxed."

"Right." She ducked down, a twig hitting her nose.

They climbed down, Aragorn a little faster than her. He stood waiting on the forest floor as she stood on the bottom branch, but jumping down that last six feet was a bit nerve wracking, even if she had just days ago jumped of a fourteen foot beam. The man waiting for her held out his arms. "Come on, I'll catch you."

Kida huffed but trusted him. She slid off the branch, being pulled into him as he caught her. Their foreheads hit together with a small thud, but it didn't hurt. It only made Kida laugh to herself as she was placed down slowly. Her foot went back to step away but he held her there for a moment. Dumbfounded, she stood there, his arms still around her.

"Are you alright?" Kida asked as Aragorn finally stepped away from her.

He smiled his usual charismatic smile, putting his hand on her head like she was a child. "Of course. Let's go now."

They walked back quicker than they had reached that point. Immediately they were on the move again. Everyone had to endure ten more minutes of tripping roots before reaching the path that Aragorn had seen. After that, the walk was easier, and even quicker now that there was no pause because of nearly falling over anything. Kida was still all the way at the back, but it was easier this time as Aragorn whistled in front. Talking would be better, but she enjoyed the sound either way.

* * *

Arriving to Rivendell felt like it was a bigger thing than Kida expected. Everyone was stripped of what they were carrying by elves who offered to lead the way to where they would stay. Kida personally was herded away from the others and offered not only a bath but endless piles of clothing. After bathing she looked over the clothing laid out in her temporary room.

There was an elf steward there who asked Kida if she would like help getting dressed. "No, not really, but don't you have pants? Something warm or thick?" Kida practically pleaded, holding of the blanket around her as well as lifting a thin silk dress up.

"These are the traditional women's clothing and there is not much more." The elf told her in a tone. It was obvious that this particular elf was against a woman wearing anything other than woman's clothing.

Kida cocked her hips to one side. "Then I want men's clothes. Please? Or I can find them myself." She knew she sounded stubborn but she didn't feel comfortable wearing what was in front of her now.

The elven woman dipped her head in a stiff nod. "I will return soon." She agreed and left.

Kida was careful of all the nice clothes on her bed and sat. Under the blanket she hid in, she crossed her legs, foot bouncing in anticipation of actually being clothed in something clean again. And she was glad for a bath because her hair had been greasy, but now she smelled like plants. She had been nowhere near any plants when bathing but there was this faint air of grass and flowers.

There was a knock on her door as her fingers twisted into the wet ends of her hair. "Come in." She called out, making sure anything important was still covered by the blanket.

It was Aragorn who strolled in, dressed in nice green clothing, his coat long and brushing just under his knees. He stopped seeing Kida on the bed. "Why are you not clothed?" He gestured at the five dresses she had to pick from.

"That girl went off to get me pants." Kida said eagerly. It had been more than a few minutes. "I don't wear dresses, not unless I think it'll be fun, but these all look really cold."

He looked them over with an odd expression. "I agree. I will return when you are clothed, then."

Kida waved as he left, closing the door behind him. The elf from before came a minute later, holding a large stack in her hands. "These are small enough to fit you, and you may keep it all. I will be leaving now." The elf said and then left quickly.

Kida was just relieved. As soon as the door was closed she threw the blanket practically across the room and dug through the clothes. She decided on thick black tights, a blue tunic, and a coat like Aragorn's in grey. Then all she had were her renaissance fair boots, which she pulled on once again because she didn't plan on staying in the room. She wanted to find Aragorn, to see what he wanted, and then to figure out where Frodo and Bonnie were.

Of all the things she listed in her head, the first to be checked off was finding Bonnie. She was walking down an open path towards the main part of Rivendell's illustrious buildings when a tall man stood in front of her. "I believe this is yours."

He held out the squirrel with a hand around its middle. "Bonnie!" Kida took her and the fur ball started to lick Kida's face. "Thank you."

She finally looked up and noticed exactly who she was speaking to. Not an elf at all. He had a long beard and a bulb of a nose, wearing a long pointed hat. Kida smiled brightly at Gandalf the Grey. She had looked forward to meeting him even if it had slipped her mind upon reaching Rivendell.

"You must be Kida Valentine. Samwise had spoken fondly of you." He spoke in a low and drawing voice that was comforting in a heartbeat. Of everyone she had seen yet, he was the least like the movie depiction, looking older and kinder. "I am Gandalf the Grey."

"I know." She blurted like a fan girl. If she had any less restraint she would be jumping up and down. "It's an honor, I swear."

He smiled down at her, and Kida never felt so short. She was five foot eight, not a short girl at all, but Aragorn had made her feel tiny before. That feeling, however, was nothing compared to this. Gandalf was looming and large. She imagined how big he had to be to a hobbit.

The wizard cleared his throat. "Yes, well, I will be on my way now. I have a feeling we will see much more of each other, Miss Valentine." He spoke kindly and walked away.

Kida watched him go and then gave Bonnie two days worth of petting and love. she had never been apart from the squirrel so long, and Bonnie was just as loving on her in return. "That's what you get for riding away on a horse, Bonnie." She mocked the little animal and strolled on down the path.

* * *

**AN/ Thanks to everyone who is reviewing! And dandapanda, you awesome human being, this chapter sort of explains everything you asked me. Aragorn lurves Arwen but he is super in between and confused by Kida. But Kida sees him as a friend. A lot more will be explained in future chapters, otherwise I'd tell you now and ruin the story! Again, thanks everyone else for reviewing and keep reviewing! I love it so much.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Since it didn't seem that Kida could find anyone she wanted to, she stopped trying. She roamed the halls inside Rivendell's palace out of lack of anything else to do. There were very few others to pass in the quiet halls, and as nobody said a word to her, she decided not to speak either. It was just fine as she got lost on the paintings and tapestries about the elven building. But then Bonnie squeaked in her ear and she knew the squirrel was alarmed by something as she scurried into Kida's shirt.

So Kida walked slowly, listening to the silence of the hall way. Then, all she needed to hear was that one footstep that wasn't hers to alarm her someone was there. She thought it was Aragorn trying to sneak up on her, since he needed to talk to her earlier and seemed like the kind of person to test her. She wasn't the quickest or most skilled in surprising people - everyone seemed to know what she got them on their birthday long before she gave the gift - but Kida was a better sword fighter than a shopper. She drew her sword swiftly and turned, her sword held at about throat height, she assumed.

Kida stopped an inch from the neck of a man who was not Aragorn. It was a blonde, tall elf with a slightly square jaw. Legolas. She felt guilty but at the same moment was about as entertained as him, if she went by the slight smile on his face.

"Your blade is dull." He pointed out without flinching at the sword swinging at him. Kida already knew that, and just held his eyes.

"It's not my blade." She spoke back. At the sound of her voice Bonnie seemed comforted, climbing back up to Kida's shoulder.

Legolas only spared the small animal a quick look. "It seems that your pet alerted you of my presence." He noticed.

Kida lowered her sword. "I would have noticed you eventually if you _kept following me_." She sheathed the dull blade and stood tall in front of the even taller elf. "I'm Kida Valentine."

"Yes, you arrived just hours ago with the man and hobbits." He nodded stiffly, formally. She kept staring until he realized he hadn't said his name. "I am Legolas."

She smirked at the lithe man. "Yes, prince of the Woodland Realm. I know exactly who you are." Her hand perched on her hip at the surprised look on his face. "How long were you going to follow me before saying hello, Greenleaf?"

His eye brows were furrowed lightly but he answered. "I had only been near for a moment. You seemed terribly engrossed in the tapestry I did not wish to interrupt." He told her.

"Well, they are beautiful." Kida shrugged. Bonnie held onto her coat to keep from falling. Then Kida felt the need to introduce the squirrel. "This is Bonnie, by the way."

Legolas gave half a bow suddenly. "It is an honor to meet you both. Now that I have, would you like any help obtaining a better sword?"

Her hand rubbed over the hilt of the one already on her hip. It wasn't great, and she had yet to actually use it, but Aragorn had given it to her. Then again there was no harm in having two swords. At home, she had three hanging on her wall after all, though she did favor one. It felt best in her hand, and this sword, dull and unbalanced, was very different than what she liked.

"Yes, sure. Please." She agreed and smiled up at him.

He held out a hand to point her in the right direction. She lead the way out of the palace. Once out of it, in the open fresh air of Rivendell, Legolas placed a hand on her lower back and walked at her side. Kida usually would have thought the hand constantly on her back was awkward, but it slipped her mind completely because this was just Legolas. He was kind in the books and movies, and she assumed this was just elf kindness.

"An elvish sword will do you well, Lady Kida." Legolas told her as they walked down the lightly wooded paths. Kida ungracefully snorted when he called her Lady. "They are strong, light blades, perfect for those like yourself."

She paused in thought, not seeing if that was just a statement or an insult. "Like myself in what way?" She asked him a bit harshly.

He looked down at her. "I mean no offense, but you look unlike one who would wield a weapon. Your blade is dull and your form seems distracted." Legolas explained with a light air of obliviousness.

"That sounds like a challenge!" Kida laughed, a new bounce in her step. "Feel like a sword fight, or do you only know how to use a bow?"

He paused, hand slipping on her back but not off, just moving a bit higher in hesitation. "How did you know that I favor a bow?"

She looked at him. "I'm clairvoyant, at least according to others. In a way." Kida explained quickly. "So, sword fight? Just a little practice? What do you say?"

"I will face you, small one." Legolas agreed.

He took her to the armory and spoke in elvish to the man who guarded the door. Kida knew enough of the language to gather that he was asking if they could take a few swords, and that the man agreed. Legolas then allowed Kida to go in in front of him. She was assaulted visually at the incredible display of what could only be a hundred bows handing on one wall, tables full of all different arrows, and the opposite wall had hanging daggers and sword in sheaths. A squeak of amazement left her mouth as she walked over to the half of the wall that held swords.

Legolas looked over the different shapes of the hilts for only a moment before he selected a wider sword. He took an identical one and tried to hand it to Kida but when she took it she hung it back up. The girl was determined to pick her own, even if she didn't know a whole lot about swords other than how they felt in her hands. So she went through the process of picking them off the wall, taking them out, and holding them. Several of them.

Kida ended up picking a slightly thinner sword, but still a broad blade. There was no curve to the double edged blade and it gleemed harshly in the sunlight from a window. The hilt matched the sheath, wrapped in green and brown strips. It was balanced just past the handle and the grip fit in her hand.

"Okay, get off me you brat." She plucked Bonnie off her shoulder even as the squirrel tried to grab her shirt. Kida looked at Legolas as she held the defeated squirrel. "Where to, elf boy?"

He seemed patient, still as ready to fight as he had been almost five minute ago. "There is a training area we may use just outside." Legolas mentioned while looking at Bonnie trying to escape Kida's hand.

They went outside, and Kida deposited Bonnie in a bush. The squirrel squeaked at her, probably really annoyed, following them down a few short steps to a large, flat area. It was all dirt, shaded by tall trees, a small babbling creek separating it from the main path that went past the armory. As they walked to the center of it Kida tied the belt of the new sword on over the old one.

At the middle they stood facing each other, Kida a bit awkwardly because she didn't know any customary actions that they may have had to do before drawing their swords. Legolas only took a few steps back and bowed his head to her, however, before drawing his sword. Kida stepped back and withdrew her own sword, shifting into an offensive position, tensing slightly. She took a deep breath as she watched Legolas change his form, looking a lot more graceful than Kida had ever seen anyone look in a fight.

He took the first swing. Kida parried the attack and shifted left as she gave they next swing. Their swords clashed several time, Legolas moving in small steps that had them circling. It was very uniform until Kida gave a full step forward and swung up at Legolas. He jumped back and pushed down on her assault. She slid her sword away and ducked as he lashed out at her.

It took great effort as the fight went on. Kida had fought plenty of people, even men who were sword fighting for over ten years, but she hadn't taken in the fact that Legolas had up to a thousand years of experience, maybe more or less. It was still incredible. He was also faster than her and because he required minimal effort to swiftly swing his sword, it was hard to guess his next move.

But Kida wasn't giving in. She was tactical. She moved differently than she usually did, swinging not as hard but quickly. Unfortunately though, she was human, and female, and had just spent about seven days traveling and hadn't slept much lately. She was abysmal compared to Legolas, and in five minutes that felt like thirty, he had her on her knees. Another swing and her sword left her hand, sliding across the dirt.

Her breath was haggard and her arm hurt from the effort put into blocking all the previous attacks. It wasn't a humiliating defeat, though. Usually she would be embarrassed or angered into near tears. But she never expected to win this battle. She just wanted to prove that she wasn't a girl who would not be able to defend herself. She was never one to sit at home and be a wife or mother like people in this world tended to expect. Legolas smiled and help out his hand.

"You are an excellent fighter, a match for any man, but you lack foresight." Legolas helped her up, grabbing her wrist so she grabbed his in return. He sheathed his sword and pulled her closer to him quickly, startling her. "But you are also an excellent woman. If it is something that pleases you, would you like to spend more time together?"

Kida entirely missed the tone in his voice, that underneath all the warmth of his voice that there was attraction. She was oblivious and just smiled. "Alright. Just let me get some feeling back into my arm and get my sword." She joked.

Legolas let her go. Kida rubbed her arm, the muscle indeed a little numb, and she picked up the shining sword that was now hers. It slid with a ringing sound back into the sheath. Looking around, she whistled until Bonnie fell out of a tree onto her shoulder. Kida called her a brat again and then turned back to Legolas. He was watching her fondly, and held his arm out like the men do in movies as she stepped closer to him. It was the first time anyone had ever made that gesture to Kida, so she giggled slightly as she slid her arm into his.

* * *

It had been an hour that Kida had spent with Legolas. She was really enjoying herself even when they just spent most of the time sitting on a bench talking. Bonnie warmed up to Legolas just as much as Kida did, because half way into their time the squirrel climbed into his lap. He found the puffy tailed creature interesting and ran his thumb over Bonnie's small nose.

For the most part, though, they had generally talked about Rivendell, Mirkwood, and both of their travels to here. Kida changed the subject because of a nagging curiosity. "So how old exactly are you?" She wanted to know, leaning back as she asked.

"I am nine hundred and seventy-three." He answered with a pause. Kida wasn't surprised, not really. From all she knew of Lord of the Rings he had to be between five hundred and three thousand. "And you, Lady Kida?"

She rolled her eyes to herself. "Stop calling me Lady. And I'm twenty-two."

"You fight very well for your age, then." Legolas offered with a small smile. "I did not bother to learn the craft of sword fighting until I was one hundred, though I had used a bow since I was fifteen."

She perked up. "Really? I started learning to use a sword when I was fifteen." Her uncle Clive gave it to her when Aunt Clara banished weapons from the house. It wasn't safe for her new baby. "But I don't know how to use a bow. Maybe when I'm one hundred I'll learn."

Legolas sensed the joke and gave a short laugh. Of course she would never make it to one hundred, she really doubted it especially if she was stuck in Middle Earth. Her theory was that she would leave this world when the books ended. That was what she hoped anyway, or she wouldn't know what to do with herself. If she didn't die in battle and she was actually stuck in this world, she wouldn't have anywhere to go, though she may want to see how living in Gondor felt.

"Perhaps I can teach you." The elf offered.

Jokingly, Kida stood up. "Alright, see you in seventy-eight years."

Legolas grabbed her hand, removing one hand from covering Bonnie to do so. As Kida looked at him, laughing, Bonnie climbed across his arm onto her shoulder. "I meant while I am here in Rivendell. I have a council to attend soon, but I am free otherwise."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time." Kida sat back down, her hand still in his. "But I'll be going to that council as well. Invited or not, I plan on going."

"Do you know what it is for then?" Legolas asked. He wasn't sure, it seemed, and Kida wondered what Elrond had said to get everyone to come together if he hadn't explained anything.

So she just bobbed her head in a slight nod. "Sure. Clairvoyant. I mentioned that, right?" She thought back, positive she had.

He nodded in return. "Yes."

There was a single beat of silence where Kida slid her hand out of his, realizing how long he held it. She suddenly wasn't oblivious. Hand holding certainly couldn't be wildly normal. Nobody held hands for longer than a second in the books or movies, and that was Aragorn and Arwen, a pair meant to be in love that hardly touched. Kida wanted to say something to Legolas to imply that she was only a friend, but there was a sudden shout from outside their little world.

"Kida!" Merry shouted. She knew it was Merry before turning, used to hearing him shout after Pippin every now and then. She stood and saw him and Pippin running down the path. "Frodo woke up!"

Excited, she forgot everything she was going to say to Legolas. "I have to go." She told him quickly and ran over to the bright and happy hobbits.

They led the way to Frodo. He was just being seated for a private dinner, only enough chairs for the four hobbits, Gandalf, Kida and Aragorn. Kida knew he was sitting and probably sore, so her hug was awkward and she was bent down, but she couldn't resist. Frodo hugged her back anyway. Then she sat down in a free chair across the table, Gandalf already at the head of the table on her left, the chair to her right empty. It had to be for the absent Aragorn, who would likely show up soon.

"I'm so glad you're awake." Kida told Frodo with a wide grin. He smiled back. "You worried me."

He chuckled. "But you said you knew I would be fine." Frodo pointed out.

"I know, and I was right, but I can still worry." She said.

Two elves came in, each carrying two trays of food that they placed on the table. Kida hadn't even realized it was near dinner time until that moment and she only got a little food. She hadn't even started eating yet when Aragorn came into the room and took a seat next to her. She smiled at him. He smiled back and then gave Frodo a few pleasant words about waking up.

Conversation didn't cease at that, however, as Gandalf set his gaze on Kida, who was giving Bonnie a roasted potato to chew on. "Miss Valentine, I am told you have a certain insight. Clairvoyant is the word you seem to favor?" He spoke in a light questioning tone.

She looked up into his knowing eyes. Like he could see right through her, which made her nervously stab at the food on her plate. "Yes." She said simply.

"And you are from across the sea?" He asked her in follow up. Her head dipped, confirming it even though that was a lie. "But that is not the case at all, is it Miss Valentine?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

Kida froze. It felt impossible to lie to him and she shrank into her seat, completely aware that everyone was staring at her save for Pippin, who was stuffing his face. "Um..."

He stopped her as she hesitated to think of what to say. "It is nothing to worry about, Miss Valentine. Where you come from does not matter, and insight of the future is dangerous to those involved, so I am not asking to know what you do." Gandalf put some bread onto his plate.

She relaxed only slightly, ducking her head in embarrassment. She was not used to being so singled out. That is, not by someone who could see through everything she had claimed to be. Well, she adopted the clairvoyant title after Aragorn assumed it of her, but if Gandalf knew she wasn't from where she claimed, possibly he knew a lot more. If he did, maybe he could help her at the end of this story, if she wanted to go back home.

The wizard just laughed it off lightly and let her eat. After that moment the awkwardness left and the conversation went on. Gandalf talked mostly to Frodo, and Kida got into a conversation with Sam about how everything on the table was cooked. Which was confusing and entertaining simultaneously. But then she noticed that Aragorn had been completely silent the entire time and turned to look at him.

"Hey." She nudged his knee with her own. The man looked down at her waiting for her to continue. "Did you need to talk to me earlier?"

He only slightly smiled. "We will talk after dinner, if need be." Aragorn offered and then his eyes left her face to look her up and down. "The clothes suit you, Kida."

She winked. "Thank you."

* * *

**AN/ Yep, so Legolas is a little into Kida. Tiny bit. Also, I want reviews! Love me, haha. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

After they ate it was about sunset. Aragorn offered lightly to walk Kida back to her room, and she accepted like she hadn't been used to that sort of gesture. He didn't understand her sudden gleeful look and surprised agreement. She was a confident girl as far as he knew, who never seemed to be surprised by much. He at least expected she had moments like this from the men who courted her previously.

The path was bare of elves or others in general when Aragorn forced words out of his mouth. "How has your day about on your own been?" He asked politely.

She turned with excitement to show him her side. "I got a new sword. They let me take it. And I found Bonnie, Gandalf had her." Kida then pointed at the squirrel on her shoulder. "I spent some time with an elf from Mirkwood before dinner, also. He's here for Elrond's council."

"Ah, yes. I have gotten word that it will be tomorrow, now that Frodo has awoken." He mentioned at the opportunity given. At least it gave him something to talk about. He had nothing to say to Kida earlier when he had entered her room, and now was trying to make up for not seeing her all day. "You aren't invited but I have a feeling you will be there."

She smiled at him and turned straight ahead again. "Of course. It would take an army to keep me away." Kida claimed, and Aragorn didn't doubt it.

He chuckled weakly. "As suspected. You know, with the new sword you can get rid of that old one." He looked ahead, guiding the way to where she was staying. They still had some time before they reached it. "It was all I had for you and the hobbits. It is a fine sword, but won't kill anything easily."

"I know that." Kida said. Her tone was sentimental. "But I'm not getting rid of it. It's a back up sword, in case I get disarmed."

"Wise tactic, but try not to get disarmed." He offered and slid his hand over her small shoulder. He was distracted by her short hair brushing his knuckle and the sound of her laugh.

The small setback of his verbal skills was ended when she looked up at him with those brown eyes. "Yeah, well, I'll try to keep that in mind mid-battle." Kida spoke with a flash of her bright white teeth.

Aragorn found himself holding back a frown. "You should not be in any battles. It is dangerous."

"I'm not going to miss out on anything just because I'm a girl." She spoke stiffly. He hadn't meant to offend and spoke quickly.

"I said nothing about you being a woman, just that it is dangerous." He defended himself. "To clarify myself, I believe you can defend yourself but if a war is ahead of us, you will have to do more than defend yourself, but survive and kill."

That made her fall silent. Incredibly so, and he felt a slight guilt, but at the same time if he had made her think about it, he was successful as well. "I get it, I understand." She told him slowly. "But I'm not going to hold back because of a risk. That's not who I am."

"Of course not." Aragorn reached the spare room she was staying in and opened the door for her. "Need be, I will take charge of you. We are friends, and therefore you are under my care as I am under yours."

Kida faced him, standing in the door way, him just outside of it. "You sure have a way with words. Alright, if you ever need anything, come to me, _friend_." She agreed and held out her arms. "Now hug me and wish me goodnight, because I'm tired."

He hugged her as ordered. It was very brief and he was shocked that she smelled like grass and flowers. It was very unusual. It smelt too much like Arwen or the other elves. Aragorn pulled back, missing the experience of their last embrace and the smell of honey on her. Again as she ordered, he wished her a goodnight and left her at the door.

That moment with Kida reminded him he had made plans to meet Arwen earlier. Far from any building at all he met her after dark, on the stone bridge they had once met at often. She stood waiting for him, dressed in yet another elegant gown, pristine and shining. There was not much light from the moon, but the evenstar pendant at her throat shined bright like a star in the sky.

She looked lovely but Aragorn felt an unexplained trepidation at what may aspire in this meeting. She had been the one who asked him to come, after all.

"Renech I lu I erui govannem? _(Do you remember when we first met)_" Arwen asked him gently, smiling.

He did. It had been so long ago but he could still recall it clearly. "Nauthannim I ned ol reniannen. (I thought I had strayed into a dream)" He said breathfully, honestly.

"Gwenin in enniath... _(Long years have passed)_" She touched the hair at his temple lightly as if he were breakable. She was always painfully careful with Aragorn, despite him telling her not to be so many times. "U-arnech in naeth I se celich. _(You did not have the care you carry now)_"

She looked into his eyes with the same look she always carried. A look of contentment and love, but it had never been the same as the love he felt for her. It always seemed less than what he felt, but now, even though her look hadn't changed, he felt that she was the one loving more between them now.

Arwen's voice was but a whisper. "Renech I beth I Pennen? _(Do you remember what I told you)_" She reached for his hand and despite himself he let her take it."

Again he knew what she was talking about. It was not as if his memory failed him. "You said you'd bind yourself to me, forsaking the immortal life of your people." He stated quietly, out of the slight hesitation he felt in that moment.

She spoke back in common as well. "And to that I hold. I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone." She folded something hard into her hand and he missed what it was, focusing on her eyes.

Looking down at his palm, her evenstar glowed up at him. Regret filled him at his inability the stand it in his hand. How was it he couldn't bare the thought of accepting her love, a great love that she gave up a long life for? He loved Arwen. But it had been so long since he had been with her, and it felt as though that love had lessened in the time he left her. If he were to break her heart, now was the time, before he accepted the evenstar and she gave up everything.

"I choose a mortal life." She told Aragorn as he paused.

He held it out, just slightly more forward than his hand had already been. "You can not give me this." He denied with a lump in his throat.

"It's mine to give to whom I will, like my heart." She spoke with promise of love and care.

Aragorn took her hand and slid the evenstar into her palm as she had done to him. "Not if I can not accept it." He told her gently.

Arwen had nothing but heartbreak on her face as she held the necklace. He was quick to continue. "I feel so much for you, but I have been away and will likely leave again. It is not fair for me to take your heart that far when I am unsure if it is a love I can continue to return."

There were tears welling up in her eyes but they did not spill over. She was not that broken hearted by him yet.

"I am sorry." He slid his hand over hers to close her fingers around the evenstar. "Maybe I have just been gone too long. Should I stay, my heart may be yours, but it is unwise to decide now."

She blinked, a tear hanging onto her eyelashes but still not falling. "Then there is hope." Arwen whispered and embraced Aragorn. Her clothes were cold from the falling night and shade they stood in. He hugged her but he barely felt her body heat and it was quick. Even quicker than his brief hug with Kida at sunset.

Maybe there was more than time apart keeping Aragorn from being with Arwen.

* * *

The council would soon begin and Kida walked to the outdoor space it would be held with Aragorn. There were seats enough for those already there and a few spare where Kida knew Frodo and Gandalf would sit when they arrived, and two more. But as far as Kida knew those two were the only ones not there yet.

"I have warned Elrond you would force your way into this meeting, and so the chair next to mine is meant for you." Aragorn told her and gestured for her to seat in the second seat from the end of the half circle. Kida moved to sit, but a few seats down a man stood sharply before she could.

She recognized his face. Boromir. "You bring a woman to a man's council, ranger, and one not decent enough to even dress properly." He looked at Kida with distaste.

Before Aragorn could say a word she defended herself. "Nobody brought me, Boromir, son of Denethor, steward of Gondor." She sassed him harshly, standing tall and shoulders back. "And I am dressed better than you, men's clothing or not. So shut up."

She knew nobody would understand what shut up meant but Boromir seemed shocked into a silence already. He sat down dejectedly and Kida plopped into her own chair, looking at Aragorn running a hand over his mouth. He looked ready to laugh but held it back.

"Please withhold from insulting anyone else before the council begins." Aragorn sat and whispered to Kida, smiling. "We do not need to be kicked out."

"Fine." She whispered back and looked over the council.

They seemed to sit by who they came with. Legolas sat with other blonde elves, sitting in tall positions and looking formal, a long cloak around him. He noticed her and nodded a greeting that she smiled at in return. Then the dwarves, Gimli looking rough but still the youngest of those ragged others. Men sat with Boromir, still stunned, and then a few elves next to Kida.

Frodo and Gandalf arrived before Elrond himself had, though Elrond's steward sat in a chair next to the tall throne. Kida gave Frodo an uplifting look, but he was still gulping past nerves. Gandalf patted the hobbit on the shoulder and sat in silence. Then Elrond came out and everyone stood, so Kida popped u onto her feet.

Before sitting the Lord of Rivendell stood in front of Kida and took her hand, not in a handshake but like he would put a ring on her finger. "We have yet to meet, Milady Kida Valentine." He bowed slightly. "I understand you are intruding on this council."

"Of course." She dipped in a small curtsy even though she lacked a dress. "It is a pleasure to meet you." She added lightly out of nervousness.

He let go of her hand and sat, as did the entire half circle. She slid all the way back in her chair and tried to look like she belonged in the council.

"Strangers from distant lands. Friends of old." Elrond began to address them all, his gaze strong as he looked them all over. "You have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite," He paused and Kida got chills. "Or you will fall."

"Each race is bound to this fate... This one doom." He continued and the gestured to the hobbit. "Bring forth the ring, Frodo."

Wordlessly, looking like he may be shaking in mixed emotion, Frodo stepped up. He took the ring from his pocket and slowly set it down on the stone plinth in the middle of the council. It was so silent the metal being placed made a small clink sound that even Kida could hear. Frodo returned to his seat, which was just low enough that he didn't have to struggle to sit. Everyone only watched the plinth in wonder or fear. Kida watched the reactions as she didn't feel any need to look at the little gold ring.

"So it's true!" Boromir spoke in shock, a whisper that broke the silence. Already Kida could see the greed in his eyes.

Legolas was just a bit louder, his words like a gasp. "Sauron's ring! The ring of power."

The dwarves were grumbling, but only Gimli really spoke. "The doom of man!"

Like expected, Boromir stood to parade himself, and Kida really listened because she forgot plenty of what was said during the council. "It is a gift... A gift to the foes of Mordor!" He told the listening group. "Long has my father, the steward of Gonder, held the forces of Mordor at bay, by the blood of our people are your lands kept safe! Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy, let us use it against him!"

"You can not wield it." Aragorn cut in before Boromir could excite himself into false hope. "None of us can. The one rings answers to Sauron alone. It has no other master."

Boromir turned a cold look to Aragorn and Kida likewise, probably angry at her for before. She crossed her legs under his gaze, not exactly caring. "And what would a ranger know of this matter?" He spoke snidely.

Aragorn didn't say anything and Kida only glared until Legolas stood swiftly. "This is no mere Ranger. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance." He spoke just under a yell, gathering vigilant attention.

Kida glanced at Frodo, who looked confused and oddly lied to, before she looked at Aragorn. He sat looking as if he just didn't want the attention he then gained.

"Aragorn? This is Isildur's heir?" Boromir commented in quiet disbelief.

"And heir to the throne of Gondor." Legolas added strongly.

Kida ran a hand through her hair as Aragorn put his hand in the air to make Legolas yeild. "Havo dad, Legolas. _(Sit down)_" He spoke up.

"Gondor has no king." Boromir said while sizing up Legolas, who moved to sit. Then he looked at Aragorn, walking back to his seat. "Gondor needs no king."

"If you believe that than Gondor also has no hope." Kida had leaned to look at Boromir, not friendly of soft like her voice sounded.

Aragorn stopped her from saying more by placing a hand on her thigh, the most accessible place to sooth her. She sat back and caught Legolas' expression from across the circle. He looked confused for a moment, not looking directly at her but in her direction, before he turned his head. Gandalf spoke and brought the council back to the matter they were there to discuss.

"Aragorn is right." He said, sitting forward and holding his staff, the only one who looked wretchedly affected by the talk and casual at the same time. "We cannot use it."

Elrond stood. "You have only one choice." He spoke to the people. "The ring must be destroyed."

Gimli's excitement distracted Kida from anything else, and she did not see Frodo's disturbed expression. "Then what are we waiting for?"

He withdrew his axe and gave a rumbling cry. Rushing forward, he swung down. The axe smashed to pieces as it made contact with the ring, and Kida jumped at the sudden sound of it, louder than expected. He fell and looked at the plinth now decorated with broken pieces of metal in disbelief. That was when Kida really noticed Frodo in pain, whether he felt it or was emotionally prisoner to it. Gandalf looked as concerned as her.

"The ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin, by any craft that we here possess." Elrond announced, Frodo ignored. "The ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom. Only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into Mordor, and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came." He looked them over. "One of you must do this."

There was a long, stunned silence. The council sat with downcast eyes and Kida felt the dread that was descended on them all. It was stomach churning and difficult. Even when she knew everything that was going to happen, and devotedly planned to volunteer herself to go, it was the most tense she felt in her life. No situation she had ever been in before was this strangling and incredibly sad. At home she was sheltered, happy, with her strict mother, her Aunt Clara, Uncle Clive, and her nephew Danny.

Boromir addressed the council again with a quiet voice, strained and annoyed. "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly."

Legolas was on his feet, the first to have anything to say. "Have you heard nothing Lord Elrond has said? The ring must be destroyed." All Kida could think was that he would help.

"And I suppose you think you're the one to do it?" Gimli snarled. Kida added to herself that he would be friends with Legolas by the end.

She smiled to herself, knowing who would volunteer of this group. "I already know who's going." She said mostly for herself.

Aragorn heard it, but he did not bring attention to it as the bickering escalated. "And if we fail, what then?" Boromir stood again. "What happens when Sauron takes back what is his?"

Gimli hopped from his chair, a laughable feat at his short height. "I will be dead before I see the ring is the hands of an elf!" He shouted, and the fight really erupted as everyone else butt in. Only Frodo, Aragorn, and Kida herself stayed in their seats.

* * *

**AN/ Mostly the council, bleh, as well as the next chapter, but this one had Aragorn and Arwen! So I know that in the real story, they're in Rivendell about a month or two (something like that) before Frodo wakes up, but I changed that. Fanfiction rights haha. Everyone who is awesome and reviewed, please keep reviewing. New people should review as well, because I like them :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

"I will take it!" Frodo spoke, unheard over the roar of the fighting. The thunderous bickering that invaded every thought Kida had, trying to listen for his small voice. She only heard it when he repeated himself. "I will take it! I will take the ring to Mordor."

The longer he spoke the quieter the council fell, until there was dead silence and all men stood staring at the small hobbit. "Though... I do not know the way."

"I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins." Gandalf walked slowly to stand behind the young hobbit. "As long as it is yours to bear."

Kida was on her feet next, and she walked across the council to kneel in front of Frodo. "I already promised you that you will be alright, and I'll be damned if I don't see that through." She smiled and then stood at his side. "I will join you."

Aragorn stood. "If, by my life or death, I can protect you, I will." He said nobly and strode across after Kida to kneel more like Frodo was royalty than a boy. "You have my sword."

"And you have my bow." Legolas moved to join the forming group.

"And my axe." Gimli waved the weapon and despite his earlier cries of racism stood next to Legolas. The prince looked exasperated, but uncomplaining.

Boromir looked them over and walked toward Frodo. "You carry the fate of us all, little one." He looked over at Elrond and Gandalf, as if seeing if this was right. "If this is indeed the will of the Council, then Gondor will see it done."

Frodo stood between them all with wide eyes as if he realized that, save from Kida, he had some of the best men in all of Middle Earth fighting for him. Standing at his side, a group of fighters in many different ways, brilliantly strong despite fear. There was a boyish yell from outside the council, then, and Kida instantly stepped to the side as Sam pushed into the group.

"Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me." He announced boldly, chest puffed out as he played a much larger man than he was. Kida was charmed by the hobbit who was more of a friend that any of them, with no fighting experience, offering to do more than he expected.

Elrond did not look surprised, but entirely amused. "No, indeed. It is hardly possible to separate you, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not. Though at least when intruding the Lady made it inside as you eavesdropped." He gestured at Kida and she shrank at the blasphemed reaction of those in the council who didn't know who she was.

Then Merry called out. "Oi! We're coming too!" Merry and Pippin ran into the circle, up some stairs to stand by the group. Bonnie was making chattering sounds on Pippin's shoulder. "You'll have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us."

"That can be arranged." Kida whispered playfully, obviously joking. She took her pet from the hobbit who offered to care for it. Bonnie curled around her neck.

"Anyway, you need people of intelligence on this soft of mission... Quest... Thing." Pippin babbled.

Merry leaned to his friend. "Well that rules you out, Pip."

Thoughtfully, ignoring the childish comments, Elrond surveyed the group. Nobody else seemed to be caring enough to volunteer before he spoke. "Ten companion. So be it. You shall be the 'Fellowship of the ring'." He announced.

"Great, where are we going?" Pippin asked ignorantly.

* * *

There was very little time before the fellowship, newly borne, was meant to assemble and leave Rivendell. Kida was packing a bag that the she-elf steward had given her the day before, filling it with the clothes she had been given, as well as a large quiver of arrows. She had accepted a bow, which she put around her like in the movies, solely because she did plan to learn how to use it, even if she was mediocre at it.

As she was having an inward debate about whether or not to leave Bonnie in the safety of Rivendell, there was a knock on her open door. Turning, Kida gestured for Legolas to come in. He had little with him, dress in green, a full quiver on his back and a bow around him. She was a little surprised to see he knew where to find her, but then again there were up to a dozen elves or hobbits or people to point him in the right direction.

"Hello, Legolas. What's up?" She asked and picked her violin up from the ground to place it on the bed. That, for sure, she was leaving behind. Someone could take it, she wouldn't be hurt by the thought, but she couldn't let it break.

The elf furrowed his brow. "Excuse me?" He asked her.

She realized the term she used. An incredibly normal Earth term, and sort of American as well. "Oh, I mean, is there anything I can help you with?" She spoke a bit more formally, turning to him.

"It seems unlikely, but I have come to implore that you stay here in Rivendell." He spoke with care and she stopped smiling. "It is a dangerous way even for the strongest of men or elves or dwarves alike. You are but a young woman, and I fear for you."

She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder as he spoke. Kida avoided eye contact expertly. "I'm not staying here. And I can't go home." She said, knowing Legolas was ignorant to her personal situation, as was everyone else. "I came with Frodo and Aragorn, so I will leave with them, simple as that, no matter where they go."

He tucked his hand under her chin and made Kida look up at him. "If I force you to stay behind?" He threatened.

"Then I will get a map and see you in a few days. I know where you'll be, sooner or later." She pushed away from him, instantly deciding that she would not bring Bonnie. She grabbed her pet from the bed and brushed past Legolas at a bit of a quicker pace than walking.

Kida was more confused than angry. What was he doing? A bit paranoid, she did go quickly to the arch leading out of Rivendell, where there was already elves gathered to watch them leave. Of the fellowship, Sam, Pippin, and Merry were there with the pony Bill, as well as Gandalf and Boromir. Holding Bonnie, she waited to join them and walked up to Elrond.

"I have to leave her behind. If I beg will you let her stay here?" She pleaded in the most pathetic voice she had ever heard come out of her mouth. Kida wouldn't be able to stand it if something happened to Bonnie. It would be the longest the were ever apart, but it was better than loosing the squirrel or having either one of them die.

Elrond nodded just once with a tilt of his chin. His steward came up and took the squirrel out of Kida's hands. "I will do what I can to guarantee she is here when you come back." The lord agreed and thankfully he didn't say _if_ she came back.

She was glad but also very depressed. Bonnie didn't even know what was going on, being sociable as always and pulling on the steward elf's long hair. Distracted, Kida stood next to Boromir at the skirt of the group, watching Legolas walk up a few moments later. He stood opposite her, not looking at her, thankfully.

Aragorn arrived with Frodo, who was likely saying goodbye to Bilbo. Though she knew how he was mentally because of the movie and books, Kida still wished she had met Bilbo before leaving, but she would hopefully be seeing him in however many months it would take to end this journey. If she was still in Middle Earth. Or still alive.

Now that they were all there Elrond began to speak. "The ring bearer is setting out on a quest to mount doom..." He said his kind farewell as Kida tuned out, staring at her boots. She was leaving, for a very dangerous place with many dangerous places in between, where she knew most of them would live, but one of those might not be her.

When the voice changed and Gandalf spoke she tuned back in, ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach. "The fellowship awaits the ring bearer." He said to Frodo.

Frodo gave one last look before turning. They all moved for him to take the lead out of Rivendell. Kida looked over her shoulder and spotted Arwen among a few women, watching them leave with horrible sorrow on her face. Kida glance at Aragorn and figured it had to be hard for her to watch the man she loved leave her again. It was touching, and Kida walked after her group wishing she someone like that at home, who would miss her as she left.

They hadn't been walking more than three hours, on hills south of Rivendell, when Gandalf spoke above idle chatter. " We must hold to this course west of the misty mountains for forty days. If our luck holds, the Gap of Rohan will still be open to us. From there, our road turns east, to Mordor."

"Forty days!" Pippin cried, and that wasn't even the whole of their journey. That was only to Rohan.

Kida laughed at his despaired reaction. She for once wasn't at the head of the group with Aragorn leading. Gandalf led, Legolas and Gimli near him, then Frodo, Merry, and Pippin. Then Sam was leading Bill in front of Boromir, who had Kida and Aragorn not far behind him.

"Before now, the longest I've been away from home is seven days." Kida mentioned nostalgically, having gone camping in Washington with a few friends years ago. Aragorn heard and looked down at her. "One whole week, nothing more, and all I did for seven days was read in a tent."

He made a small amused sound. "And yet you seem to know almost as much of Middle Earth as I do." He braced a hand on her as she stepped up onto a high rock, following her and the rest of the group. "But you had a scholar man teach you. Cheating, if you ask me."

She mocked offence. "Cheating? Me? Never!" She cheered and gained a look from Boromir. "Can I help you?" She asked at his expression.

He ignored her and turned forward again. Kida wasn't surprised that he was just as oddly vain as he had been represented in the movies. Diluted and vain was not a great combination, but she couldn't be too harsh on him. She would only feel guilty later on if that was the case. It took a bit of convincing herself, but when Aragorn was quiet for a while Kida stepped up and decided to chat with Boromir.

Mostly question. "What is Gondor like?" "How is your family?" "Are you a soldier?" All her inquiries were answered with quick and cold answers. But for the most part she had tried to get along with him. Now, anyway. Then when she ran out of vague questions she walked in silence off the the side of the line so she wasn't next to either of the men leading the back of the group. Like before, on the journey to Rivendell, she hummed to herself.

Near night fall they prepared a large camp somewhere atop the near Eregion Hills. There were rocks very familiar to Kida, from the movie depiction obviously. She dropped her gear with an even five foot space between her and either Aragorn or Legolas. While it was still just light enough out, they lit a quick fire to make food, but it had to be put out for safety safe as the sun began to set. Kida perched herself on a tall rock in their circle of a camp.

"Kida, where is your violin?" Merry asked up at her, sitting opposite the circle in the dirt.

Pippin squinted at her dropped things. "Oh yeah. I was going to ask you to play, you know." He said with an exaggerated nod.

She bit her lip for a moment. "I left it behind. I didn't want it to break." Though now she wished she brought it, if only to entertain them for a moment.

"Well will you sing for us?" Frodo asked, looking disappointed at the lack of the instrument.

Kida was quick to shake her head. "No. No." She repeated herself a bit strongly. "I don't sing for people. I didn't think anyone could hear me last time."

"What did she sing?" Legolas asked, leaning away from the rock he had sat against.

"Twilight and Shadow." Aragorn responded before anyone else could, though the hobbits only knew it was in elvish.

The elf spoke breathily. "Beautiful." He looked up at her. "You speak elvish?"

She held her hand out in the air, wiggling it. "Only a little. Mostly songs, and very basic conversation." Kida explained.

"Was is Tolkien who taught you?" Aragorn asked. He looked like he expected her to agree. "The scholar."

This time she was able to shake her head. "Nope. He was dead by then. But I spent a lot of time burying my nose in books learning things." And by books it was mostly the internet that taught her elvish, the movies that taught her songs, and other nerds like her who sang with her.

She was smiling, remembering her first renaissance fair when she was fifteen, going with her friends in garb appropriate for Middle Earth, singing every song they knew in elvish with a bunch of strangers. It was the most fun she had ever had. But then her friends grew out of the Lord of the Rings phase and stopped going to fairs. Then Kida was going alone and her friends weren't close with her anymore. But it was still a good time.

"Um, yeah." She stuttered on, everyone staring at her. "I had some help but it was mostly me and my friend Lisa trying to talk to strangers in elvish, when most of the time not even the people we were talking to knew elvish." Her mind wandered.

"Don't even think of speaking that language near me!" Gimli barked at them all.

Kida laughed, bending down to adjust her boot. "Gimli, don't be so stubborn. You know you like us." She spoke lightly.

"I have said no such thing, and will not!" Gimli denied, which was true. He hadn't said anything to anyone for most of the day, save for Gandalf and the hobbits.

"Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it's not true."

Aragorn watched faces change. "For those of you who do not know, Kida claims herself a clairvoyant." He told the group, which would only really inform Boromir and Gimli, as everyone else knew.

"No, you called me a clairvoyant, and I went with it for about a week now." Kida slid down from the rock, standing in the group. "I don't see things or whatever, I just know things. Like remembering the next part of a story you heard a thousand times." Because that was exactly the case.

Boromir spoke for the first time. "So this is why you are of value to this fellowship." He spoke with wonder. "You can change the outcome if things are to fail."

"No, I can't. I already tried to once, and it doesn't work. Some events are set in time and can't be changed." She sat at her pack nearer to Aragorn than Legolas. "But the little things I know are handy, and I can fight."

Boromir looked interested. "Then perhaps in the morning you can help me teach the halflings some sword work." He suggested.

"It's a deal." She accepted with a smile.

* * *

Aragorn and Kida woke up almost simultaneously. They were used to the early morning, and one of them waking the other at some point. They didn't talk for a few minutes and Kida went off to get changed behind a rock. She didn't remember much of this part of the story and she would know less as days went on. About twelve months would pass if she recalled it correctly, and she wasn't prepared for it but she would go through it.

So she also needed to stop thinking about the future and missing her own home. Being a fake clairvoyant was tiring, but she did know one thing and wanted to take advantage of the memory quickly. Changed, she strolled up to Aragorn, who was stretching a ways away from the camp. She smiled up at him as she circled into view, and he wished her a good morning.

"So, you and Arwen?" She hinted at and sat down on a rock in front of him, legs crossed. The evenstar so visible and popularly mentioned wasn't visible around his neck but she wanted to see it.

Aragorn rolled his wrists before speaking at all. "You know of Arwen?"

Kida nodded. "We haven't met, but I know who she is." She was so happy for them and she wanted to see the glowing evenstar for herself, in real life, or as real as this was.

"And you have seen something between me and her?" Aragorn sat next to Kida, facing her just slightly.

Again, she tilted her head in a nod. "Well, yes? She gave you her evenstar." Kida was confused by his dim behavior. She nudged him, trying to lighten his mood. "Come on, let me see it."

He caught her eye and she stared deeply into his, seeing a certain sorrow. It was noticeable. "But I did not take it."

Kida's stomach dropped in a dramatic way that she had thought only happened in exaggerated literature. But she felt it, the sickening weight that things had changed. It could only be her fault. She was the only thing that was different in this version of the story she loved. Before Aragorn could say anything she was on her feet, feeling the prick of tears in her eyes.

"Kida." Aragorn reached for her hand quickly.

But she didn't want to be forced to talk about what she knew. She was done with that, and now she had to deal with the fact that she had done something potentially horrible. Pulling her hand away, she couldn't look at Aragorn, and she ran. Not far, but up the hill away from the camp, giving up behind a large rock. She pressed against it, hidden behind it from the view of the camp, trying to catch her breath.

"Dammit." She whined to herself and slid down onto her knees.

Kida _had _changed something she didn't mean to, and she didn't know how or why it had. And it was something as big as Aragorn accepting Arwen's necklace. Arwen would be immortal and probably wouldn't wait for him like she was meant to. It wasn't anything that could affect the outcome of the war, but this was love, and it was just terribly sad.

At the camp Aragorn decided it was best not to chase the crying girl. He still was not one for comforting women. It made him uncomfortable and confused, though the last time Kida had cried she only ended up sleeping. Instead he started a fire and watched the others wake up slowly. The absence of the only female in their group didn't go unnoticed at all, and Sam mentioned it first.

"Where's Miss Kida?" He asked Aragorn, who was finding food in their bags for a breakfast.

He didn't know how to explain the situation but instead just nodded in the direction she ran. "Up the hill for near half an hour now." He told the halfling.

Of course Sam wasn't exactly trusting. "What did you say to her, Strider? She doesn't just walk off." He glared lightly at Aragorn.

"Nothing that would offend her." Aragorn stood from stoking the fire and saw that Sam wasn't the only one looking at him. At Sam's angered voice they had their attention drawn to him. "I will go and fetch her."

Merry popped up before he could walk off. "No, you will fix things. We like Kida." He told Aragorn off, just as defensive as Sam was.

If he knew what he had done wrong, the situation may have been amusing, but Aragorn had no idea what to say. "Fine." He told those listening, exasperated.

"This is why a women should not be on this sort of journey." Boromir retorted as Aragorn walked away.

Last he heard of the camp was Merry, Sam, and Pippin all yelling, "Hey!"

He trudged up to where he knew Kida was hidden behind a boulder. She sat on her heels, knees in the dirt, staring ahead with distraction. It was shocking how completely blank her face was in deep thought, but at the very least she was no longer crying. At the same time, she hadn't yet noticed Aragorn so that could change. But before it could he squatted near her and put his hand on her shoulder. A small gasp went through her and she looked at Aragorn.

His face was hard, Kida noticed, like he didn't want her to know how he felt. It reminded Kida of the face guys made when they were going to break up with her. "What about my ended relationship with Arwen has you acting so oddly?" Aragorn asked, not breaking up with her but basically saying he had broken up with the she-elf.

"Because it's my fault you're not with her!" Kida couldn't really hold back the yell, hands clenching the clothe of her pants.

Aragorn shook his head. "You have nothing to do with my affairs. You said yourself that you have not even met Arwen." He denied, standing up in front of her.

She stood up, a bit slowly after half an hour in one position on her knees. "No, it had to be my fault. I know everything, how_ everything_ is meant to happen, except how it happens without me." Kida wasn't yelling, but still loud, desperate.

"So if something changes, it's all my fault! In some way, I know it is, I'm the only thing that's different!" Kida was hysterical at this point. She knew her hands were shaking, she felt them vibrating with nerves, and her heartbeat was pulsing in her ears. "I have to fix this. I can go to Rivendell and fix this and meet you all at Moria, I know I can make it in time."

"Don't do that." Aragorn grabbed both her wrists and pulled them to his chest. She stopped panicking if only because she could no longer flail her arms. "I made my choice, and there is no fixing this."

Kida couldn't understand, but she nodded anyway. "Fine. Okay, let go of me. I told Boromir we would train the hobbits." She spoke barely a whisper after a long pause.

Aragorn let her go and followed her down the hill slowly. He wondered what she meant by meeting them all at Moria. The mines of Moria were not a place they were planning on even nearing.

* * *

**AN/ Yep, I'm updating again because I'm needy for love and attention. Please review if you can or want to, or even if you don't, a good bash of your forehead on the keyboard will suffice. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

The Eregion hills were incredibly vast and Kida was waiting for something different to happen. Though it had only been three more days, the forth day she sword fought with Boromir and the hobbits before they walked long distances. She was taking a break from it that morning, drinking a little water that they had and spitting a little out to wash her hands that were caked from falling in dirt, Merry and Pippin often plotting to trip her.

She wiped her hands dry on her pants as she sat next to Aragorn, who was watching and smoking a long pipe. It had been almost exactly thirty-six hours since the last time she spoke to Aragorn, and she was certain that it was noticeable. Sam kept giving her looks whenever she was near Aragorn and didn't talk, and Aragorn would look at her, at which point she turned fully away from him, which twice caused her to trip when hiking. Nobody asked, though, and she was often distracted by Merry, who seemed to know exactly how to make her laugh.

"Get away from the blade, Pippin. On your toes..." Boromir gave advice, very lightly fighting the hobbit, swords clashing. Pippin acted like he understood, but she figured his good move away was chance. "Good, very good. I want you to react, not think."

"Should not be too hard." Sam mocked from a rock above them, at the fire making breakfast. Almost everyone had already eaten, but when the size of your fire had to be easy to put out, cooking was slow and they took turns.

Boromir parried a stiff hit. "Move your feet." Aragorn piped in

"Quite good, Pippin." Merry complimented his friend.

Pippin was smiling. "Thanks." He squeaked. Then Boromir fought Merry, counting off.

Kida giggled and turned her attention toward the others as Gimli's loud voice reached her. "If anyone were to ask for my opinion, which I note they have not, I would say we are taking the long way round." He had Gandalf cornered and was talking.

Kida stood and moved to hear better, what he was saying very familiar to her. It was in the story. "Gandalf, we can pass though the Mines of Moria. My cousin, Balin, would give us a royal welcome."

"No, Gimli." Gandalf was obviously not liking the idea. "I would not take the road through Moria unless I had no choice."

Kida jumped at a squeak sound and turned back to the fight, Pippin throwing his sword down, tackling Boromir. Him and Merry knocked Boromir down, the man laughing. She turned in a circle quickly, seeing the dark spot in the sky, then back to the fight. Aragorn stood and put his pipe down.

"Now boys, that's enough." The ranger said lightly to Merry and Pippin, going to stop it. Then the two hobbits grabbed his legs and flipped Aragorn flat on his back.

Kida then turned back to the sky, seeing that the rest had noticed it on that side of the group. "What is that?" Sam asked.

"Nothing!" Gimli said gruffly. "It's just a wisp of a cloud."

The worried voice behind her was Boromir. "It's moving fast... Against the wind."

Kida whispered, "Crebain," as she remembered.

"Crebain from Dunland!" Legolas then shouted for them all.

Kida jumped up a rock to grab what she could as Aragorn called urgently. "Hide!"

Sam put out the fire and they all grabbed what was near. Kida slid a bit painfully into a low covering under rocks, also hiding a few of the packs with her. Her hip burned, having scraped the side of a nearby boulder when she ducked down to her space. But she was trying her best to focus on hiding, pulling Merry and Pippin down to hide with her by the belts when they ran past trying to find somewhere to go.

As the large crows flew past Kida held them tight in the small space, knowing they fit and were hidden still. They whirled about, low and causing a chorus of wing beats of the air. Then with squawking cries they suddenly went South. Kida let go of Pippin and Merry, and they crawled out of hiding with the rest of the fellowship appearing as well.

"Spies of Saruman. The passage to the South is being watched." Gandalf said worriedly as everyone convened near him, holding an assortment of their packs and other things they had lying about before. Kida stood by Gimli, putting the several bags down gently. Gandalf turned to look at Aragorn, than gesturing to the mountains. "We must take the pass of Caradhras!"

So they packed what wasn't packed and decided to move. The mountains didn't seem very close and Kida wondered how much she didn't know of that journey, either. Kida instinctively held near the end of the line as they began to hike. Not five minutes in did her thigh stop being numb and forgotten, sharp pain hitting her with each step. A few steps in she stopped and angled to see the broad side of her thigh.

Small but growing spots of blood dotted her grey pants. Kida took the fabric in two fingers and pulled it from her skin. It stuck to semi-dried blood, and she sucked in a harsh breath at the pain. All this trouble for just harshly brushing against a rock.

Aragorn had passed her, walking, and heard her pained sound. When he saw the blood and her uncomfortable look he didn't approach Kida right away. First he jogged up past everyone in the slow moving fellowship, up to the pony to hang a bag on the saddle, then to Gandalf. The wizard leading the way spared him his attention lightly.

"Kida and myself need to stop for a moment but we will catch up to you. Do not waste time on us." Aragorn informed him. Gandalf nodded, and so Aragorn jogged back to Kida, who was following farther back than before, and limping. In front of her her put his hands out to stop her. "You're hurt. Stop walking."

She was startled that suddenly he was talking to her again. Then again she was the one so permanently ignoring him. Save for now. She stopped suddenly and was thankful as her pain dulled now that fabric wasn't brushing it, though it still throbbed with the short distance she did walk. Aragorn looked down at her, apologetic as his hands laid over her shoulders.

"Let me see it." He didn't ask.

Kida went red. She knew she had to be blushing a little. That involved pulling her pants down and she wasn't fond of the idea without the assurance that Aragorn was with Arwen like before. "No, really, I'm fine. Great even. I just need to stop for a second." She babbled.

Without permission he kneeled in front of her and put his hand over the blood spots. The body heat and light pressure made it burns and Kida stepped away with a wince. Aragorn looked up at her and grabbed her roughly, pulling her back and causing a bit more pain. Kida caved as he poked just under the cut area, but it still hurt.

"Fine! You can see it but stop touching it." She slapped at his hands and turned slightly as she pulled down her pants, lopsided so most of her right thigh was exposed but her left was not. "I ran against a rock."

While Aragorn looked, Kida got her first good look as well. The skin was just flaking up from a rough scrape and bleeding in four spots, but a bruise was also forming around it already. It wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to Kida, but it looked gruesome. Careful not to touch the sore spots as she said, Aragorn placed one hand under the scraped spot and took the canteen off Kida's belt with the other. He opened it with his mouth and poured cold water over the scrape, with hand on her leg keeping her pants or feet from getting wet.

The water felt surprisingly good and she didn't flinched away the next time he touched it, wiping away skin and blood. "It will keep hurting unless we bandage it." Aragorn said as he recapped the canteen.

Kida didn't have a bandage and was going to say it was unneeded, but Aragorn was already cutting the bottom of his cloak with a dagger. It was clean, not that the cuts her big enough to get infected either way, so she let him wrap her leg. Though the main reason may have been that she didn't know how to complain when he was unselfishly helping her. But it was hard to ignore his hand going between her legs to pass the cloth from back to front, in silence. She forced her mouth open.

"So we haven't really talked in a few days." She said quietly, looking at the fellowship moving farther and farther away from them. Maybe it was a good thing they didn't stop for her, though she didn't look forward to catching up with them, but that was still better than nine men standing there as she had her pants half down.

Aragorn's voice was amused, but she wasn't going to look down at him. "That's because you excel at ignoring me, despite constantly being near me. You still even camp next to me at night." He told her.

Kida stubbornly answered. "That's out of habit, not because I'm trying to taunt you." She bit her lip as he tied a knot in the makeshift bandage. The full bottom of his cloak went around her thigh four times in a tick band.

"But you still do it and then refuse to speak to me for three days." He stood up in front of her and was smirking. Kida pulled her pants right up and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, testing the pain in her thigh.

It didn't hurt a whole lot, so she began to walk after the fellowship, far ahead on the hill. Aragorn was right at her side, carrying her canteen, without pause. "Don't start ignoring me again, Kida. It's going to be a very boring trip if you start to ignore us all one by one." Aragorn grabbed her hand and turned her to him, blocking her path.

She pouted out of guilt, unaware of it. "I messed up. And when normal people mess up, they try not to do it again." Kida walked off again.

He didn't stop her this time, but the conversation wasn't over for him. "You did nothing. I looked into Arwen's eyes, and my love for her just was not the same. That is not something you could ever control."

"But something I did had to start it." Kida was quick to say it. Her heart was pressed against her rib cage with each sporadic beat, and she felt pain over the topic. "Dammit, I don't mean to sound vain or cocky, but..."

She stopped suddenly and turned to face Aragorn. Her expression showed everything in her, the questioning and sadness. He waited for her to say anything to follow that sort of build up to a question.

"Do you like me?" Kida asked quick and loud. "I hate to sound like a third grader, but do you _like_ like me?"

Aragorn had to take a second to get passed the phrasing he didn't understand. "Are you asking me my feeling towards you?"

She squeaked with desperation. "Obviously!" She cried.

He didn't mean for it to happen, but Aragorn chuckled. Kida looked ready to run off yet again so her grabbed her right hand with his left. He calmed his light laughter and looked down at her. Possibly the words she used, not like or love but _like_ like, an extreme liking, was the right way to explain his confusing emotions. He pushed the canteen strap onto his shoulder and with his newly free right hand he cupped her pale cheek.

"The way I feel towards you, though you evade me and I understand but half of what you say, is more than the friendship I've claimed." Aragorn slid his thumb over her skin and watched color grow on her face. "And I am sorry if that brings you guilt because of how I ended things with Arwen, but I never planned to ever act on my feeling towards you until I was sure I was not alone."

Kida's nose scrunched just slightly, like it did when she had something to ask. "Alone in what way?" She was truly oblivious.

He disconnected from her in any way and took a step back. "I have feelings for you, and when normal people have feelings for someone, they generally hope the other feels the same way." He copied her earlier words and this time he was the one who walked off.

Understanding, Kida's mouth fell open. "Oh my God." She whispered to herself.

Another moment and she was walking quickly after Aragorn. They still had to catch up with the others. But she didn't have the nerve to say anything to Aragorn as they walked a bit quicker than normal. At least her leg wasn't hurting very much anymore, the tight bandage keeping a pressure on it but not hindering her. Now she felt less guilty of what she may have done when around Aragorn, but all she could think about was that he _liked_ her. In some odd way, he liked her, and the simple gesture of him saying it was just a small feeling was far more charming than the few guys who claimed to love her as they dated.

* * *

As the fellowship clambered through snow Kida realized just how much she under estimated the time that was spent hiking in the story itself. Yet they had spent a few days in the Eregion hills, and another few going off course to the path of Caradhras. Kida was so unsure of how sane she could continue to be by counting the days, so she gave up on thinking about that as well. The best distraction she came up with was to have Legolas teach her to shoot a bow in their free time.

The moment Boromir held the ring had happened yesterday, though. It had been incredibly tense for everyone. In the end as Aragorn ordered Boromir to give the ring back, Kida almost snatched it from him to give to Frodo and end the moment. It was the same time, about, that she realized she felt no draw to the ring of power, likely because she was from a whole other universe, but she thought she'd at least feel like the others did.

Today, they walked and the weather was picking up, getting cooler and new snow falling. Not heavily but still falling. Any day now they would be turned back, but she didn't bring it to the attention of the others. She was done playing clairvoyant, unless she had to. So as long as nobody asked she had nothing to say.

As usual, today even, she found herself walking with Aragorn. They were back to talking like they had before leaving Rivendell, but there was always this nagging in her mind to say something about their private talk. But the topic was exactly that, private, which was not a possible theory when constantly with eight others. So that was a third thing she was ignoring, though more temporarily, as they walked on.

A lot of her time was spent thinking of what was ahead, or home, if time was passing without her there. It was what got her by. Often it also got songs stuck in her head. Bored now, however, Kida gave up on her not singing in front of people policy, though the singing started off as whispering to herself, in a low tone. The very first song that came to mind.

"Lay down, your sweet and weary head." She whispered lightly in tune to the song she knew. Into the West. The song that plagued her mind the more she thought ahead, if only because it played during the credits of the very last movie. But it was painfully beautiful each and every time. "Night is falling, you have come to journey's end."

Aragorn heard her whisper. He smiled slightly at the melody in her simple words that didn't make sense to him. It was easy to guess that she wasn't striking up conversation, but singing. The next part come out just slightly louder, and much more like a song.

"Sleep now  
Dream of the ones who come before  
They are calling  
From across a distant shore."

The sad and loving tone of her voice reached the others. She was just loud enough for a careful echo to make her sound much better than she was. Merry whacked Pippin to stop talking at the sound of the singing. All conversation stopped, in fact, and there were a few glances back to see if she was really going to continue.

"She's singing." Frodo smiled, shivering slightly but glad to hear her.

"Why do you weep?  
What are these tears upon your face?  
Soon you will see  
All of your fears will pass away."

Kida took a cold breath, preparing for the louder chorus, though she wouldn't sing too loudly, just in case it was dangerous.

"Safe in my arms  
You're only sleeping.

What can you see  
On the horizon?  
Why do the white gulls call?

Across the sea  
A pale moon rises  
The ships have come  
To carry you home."

All at the same moment the fellowship realized the song was about elves. Legolas felt an ache in his chest, but not in a bad way. It was a beautiful song for not being one the elves had come up with. Gimli even kept quiet and listened, more interested in the voice of the woman than the words she said. He never heard anyone sing like she did, being a boisterous dwarf among others who only sang when drunk or drinking. As she went on, Kida's voice was lighter again.

"Hope fades  
Into the world of night  
Through shadows falling  
Out of memory and time.

Don't say  
We have come now to the end  
White shores are calling  
You and I will meet again."

Kida stopped there even though it was still the middle of the song. She didn't feel like singing the rest. The combination of a few stares, self-consciousness, and the fear that she would cry if she did stopped her. Aragorn looked down at her at the sudden silence.

"That song sounds unfinished." He commented, the first to speak since she began singing to herself.

Kida shook her head. "It's finished, I just don't want to sing the rest." She kept a childish whine out of her voice at how sad it made her. "I forgot how depressing it was before I started singing it."

"I thought it was wonderful." Gandalf said from the front of the group, turning momentarily to tip his hat to Kida. "Not a song I've ever heard, however."

"Nor I, but I shall like to learn it some day." Legolas commented in turn.

Merry paused in step to wind up walking next to Kida. "Will you sing us another song?" He asked her.

She laughed and put her arm around him best she could with the height difference. "Not right now, Merry. I don't know very many and I can't think of anything right now." She was mostly trying to think of songs that weren't about the things that would happen to them or songs that weren't too _her world_ for them to even understand.

"We'll teach you the ones we learned in the Shire." Pippin offered happily. "Right Merry?"

"Of course, Pip." Merry agreed, and Kida giggled again.

* * *

**AN/ All of you reviewers are awesome, but honestly, Cindy's review of jumbled letters of forehead banging on keyboard made my day. **

**And to another reviewer who asked about Kida, I explained pretty early on, in the first three chapters in fact, that she was twenty-two, near twenty-three, had shoulder length blonde hair, and brown eyes. What will be explained soon: She is about six to seven inches shorter than Aragorn is, average weight or a little more, with wide hips. Any changing characteristics will be plot related and well mentioned, I swear to it.**

**Please keep reading and reviewing. Thank you to everyone who has and is!**

**Also, the song is Into The West, Annie Lenox version. I sincerely cry every time I hear it and may bring it back, possibly sung in Sindarin next time?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

* * *

There was an impossible blizzard pushing back on the fellowship. Each step took a lot of effort, and it was nearly impossible to see what was ahead of them, and Kida was freezing. She walked like a kid shadowing someone, her feet right behind Boromir's as she trudged through snow. She was also very aware that Aragorn was right behind her as well, his hand brushing her side when ever she stumbled.

They were on a slightly narrow part of a cliff pass. In a single file line struggling to hike, shivering and all in layers. Save for Legolas, who wasn't cold and walked on top of the snow. Only in this moment was she jealous of the elves. Light, not cold, and not tired at all. Kida would probably stick her tongue out at Legolas like a child if he even turned to look at her.

Over the sounds of the blizzard, Legolas had paused to shout back at them. "There is a fell voice in the air." He sounded urgent, looking out at the sky swirling with snow.

"It's Saruman." Gandalf scowled.

Thunder rolled and there was a small stab of panic as the mountain shook slightly and rocks fell from above them. "He's trying to bring down the mountain!" Aragorn called urgently. "Gandalf! We must turn back!"

"No!" Gandalf refused. Kida knew it was out of fear of having to go through the mines, or risk a lot more to go to the Gap of Rohan. The wizard raised his staff and began to chant in retaliation.

But Saruman's voice only strengthened and Kida began to hear it when she hadn't before. It was like thunder, speaking. Lighting cracked and exploded on the mountain above them, and Kida knew it was going to happen moments before it had. When she gave up her facade, she stopped remembering what was supposed to come next because she didn't think about it, but now she lunged forward and helped Aragorn and Boromir pushed the hobits away from the side of the cliff.

Snow fell in an avalanche over them. Kida had never been in any sort of snow storm, just regular snow, so she had never faced an avalanche before either. It buried them and despite how much she tried to stay near Pippin and Merry, powder pushed between them all and covered every inch of them all. Kida could breath, but she didn't dare move until the snow and mountain stopped moving above her.

Frantically, she pushed back snow as she broke the surface, trying to find the hobbits. Aragorn pulled up Frodo, Boromir found Sam, just as Kida grabbed two different people under the snow and yanked. Merry and Pippin came kicking up and were shivering far worse than she was.

"We must get off the mountain!" Boromir sounded together, but still frightful. It was hard to deny this was a horrible situation. "Make for the gap of Rohan and take the West road to my city."

Aragorn shouted from behind Boromir. "The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard."

"We cannot pass over the mountain. Let us go under it." Gimli offered, for not the first time. It was the fifth he mentioned it, by Kida's count. "Let us go through the mines of Moria."

Gandalf's face held a concerned look. Kida knew what was going on with him. He was regretting to have to make the choice. He was afraid of the mines, and Kida was regretting it herself. She crawled over soft snow, freezing her hands further, to get her bearing and find her feet. If they were turning back she was going to get the snow out of her boots, even if more would just fall in on the hike down the mountain.

She had the first boot off when Gandalf finally spoke. "Let the ring bearer decide." He was quiet, barely audible over the still roaring wind.

Frodo didn't look ready to make the choice either, hand at his chest where the ring rested under his clothes. "We can not stay here! This will be the death of the hobbits!" Boromir yelled.

"Frodo?" Gandalf asked the halfling.

Their eyes met and he made the choice Kida expected. "We will go through the mines."

Gandalf nodded and Kida took off her second boot. She shook them quickly out and shoved them haphazardly onto her feet as the others began to pass her. Legolas was the one who pulled her up out of the snow, after helping Merry and Pippin along. Kida smiled at him and gained her right mind, walking on her own. She did not miss the look that Aragorn was giving her. But she couldn't explain it, either.

Going down the mountain was quicker, with the wind now at their backs and not having to find a way to hike up the path. The snow lightened the longer they walked, and the path was not as steep after a while, either. Moving made Kida warmer so she could only hope it was the same for the hobbits, who were far worse off in the cold. As the snow was shallower, she shook ice off her cloak and out of her clothes before pushing forward to do the same to all the four hobbits.

"Thank you, Kida." Frodo said as she fussed over him last. She smiled and finished, her hand brushing snow flakes off his vest. "Can I ask you something?"

It wasn't the first time he had said that to her over time. Usually the questions were about her or what she thought would happen next. "Of course you can." Kida agreed.

He seemed nervous to ask as she walked next to him, hand moving over his chest. "Do you feel it?" He asked her. "The ring?"

"No." She answered with a shrug. "I don't think I ever will. I could probably lick the damn thing and not feel anything." Her answer was playful and thankfully she made Frodo laugh.

There was a light pause and she could tell he was thinking deeply. "I'm afraid of what it will do to me."

"So am I." But she wouldn't tell him anything, she gave that up.

* * *

They were out of snow for a few days now, and night had hit. Kida went with Legolas to hunt for game, despite how opposed she was to eating it. The main reason was to continue her lessons in shooting a bow, so she had her quiver and the elvish bow, leaving both her swords behind at the camp. As quiet as possible, they walked through a very thin bit of trees and bushes. Only, quiet for Kida wasn't very quiet, and she spent so much time hearing herself walk it was maddening.

"You are fine. We are still a ways from deer." Legolas told her in a whisper when she seemed to agonize about stepping on a stick. He spent a second listening to sounds that Kida really couldn't hear, and she paused. "They haven't heard us yet and are walking this way. We will be in sight of them in a minute, two at most."

That gave Kida an idea. She put the bow in her hand over her head and back around her body. She walked to the lowest tree branch in sight, which still took a little jump to reach, but it was easy to climb up. Legolas watched her in odd interest up until she sat on the next branch up, facing the direction that the deer would come from. Then he climbed up to her side with ease.

"What are we doing in a tree?" He asked. Kida smiled and didn't take her eyes away from the spaces in the trees that animals could appear in.

"Where I'm from, some people put chairs in trees." She began to explain, quietly just in case. She slid the bow off her and held it. "They're called hunting perches. Then hunters sit in them, sometimes for a day, just waiting for unsuspecting deer to walk under them. It eliminates the risk or being heard, and gives them more time to shoot."

It was a sick tactic, Kida had always thought, until now. It was a tactic that loud people like her should always use. "I've never done it before, I always thought it was mean. All I can think is, "oh no, I'm going to kill Bambi's mother." " She laughed lightly.

The elf's brow furrowed. "I do not know what a Bambi is." He mentioned and Kida looked at him.

"It's just a story. About a deer. Doesn't matter." She smiled and then looked back to the tree line.

Legolas looked as well, but he knew if they were not moving to the deer, it would be a few more minutes still for them to come. He risked talking through it. "You are an incredible woman, Kida." He began.

In turn she looked confused and faced him one more time. "For a moment in Rivendell, I had thought of courting you." He went on and seeing her lips part to speak, he didn't allow it. "But you are too distracted by other things, and you speak of a faraway home as if you plan on returning soon."

"I'm not distracted." She defended herself. Sure, her thoughts wandered often but for every moment, for a long time, she had been just as present in the fellowship as any other member.

Legolas smiled at her. "Yes you are. By Aragorn, I've noticed." He actually found how the two humans stared at each other when the other was unaware a bit charming. "You are a friend to me now, Kida, and I am not blind to the way my friends feel. So tell me, friend, how long have you been in love with Isildur's heir?"

Kida felt her heart beat heavily. She knew what he meant, in what way he thought she loved Aragorn. But for what felt like forever now she was ignoring the confession Aragorn gave her. It wasn't the story, she was far too afraid to say anything to turn him down or accept his feelings in case it hurt their mission. With that being the case she also completely ignored herself in the situation as well, and it had never been about how she felt, just Aragorn.

But then again, she knew this story. She had read it at least ten times, seen the movies far more than that. Pushing back all seriousness, she thought about how long she had known the character, Aragorn, a man in a book who had her attentions, when she wasn't expecting to ever meet him. Kida smiled at Legolas and decided on making a joke.

"Ten years." Ten years since she first read the books on her own. Since she was old enough to begin having crushes on fictional characters. When she had friends to coo with over how amazing he was, or Legolas was, or even Frodo and Sam. Ten years, as well, since she first saw the image of Aragorn in the movies and fell in love with the way an actor portrayed him.

Legolas was startled by her response, and the look on his face and the way he recoiled in great surprise had Kida laughing. "But you have only known him for over a month, from what I gather." Legolas said with alarm to match his face.

"Exactly." Kida turned away and saw a deer ahead of them. She fell silent and carefully took on arrow from the quiver over her shoulder.

Legolas was quiet as well, though he had wanted to speak more. In a moment he fell into a hunting mode, but he let Kida knock her arrow without reaching for one of his own. As she took aim he looked over her posture. They had grown to silent training in the time that had passed, so when he touched her hand holding the bow she corrected her hold, and when he tapped the arm pulling back, she lifted her elbow a bit more.

Kida took a deep breath in, aiming for the nearest of three deer. It lifted its head from eating off the ground, and exhaling she let go of the arrow. The first one she had ever shot with more of a target than a tree or rock. It cut through the air and hit the deer where she didn't intend to hit it, right through the eye. It sickened Kida and she dropped her bow and covered her face to not see it fall, the other deer running away.

"Perfect shot." Legolas complimented her before noticing her hands over her eyes and her depressed posture. "Are you alright, Kida?"

She nodded her head but didn't move her hands. "I was aiming for the neck. I just feel a little sick." She answered him.

He reached out and took her hands away from her face. "It's alright. The deer would have died instantly, where if you hit it in the neck it would take a moment. this was a much better end, don't you think?" He tried to comfort her as her eyes trained on the ground.

"Sure, but ew." Kida braced herself on the tree branch and slid down to the one below. They both climbed down, and when she was on the ground she got her bow back. "Okay, let's get the deer and go. I've got about five more minutes in me before I have a break down about Bambi."

He heard the joking tone but was still concerned. "I will carry it alone. Just give me a moment." He volunteered and walked the twenty yards, at most, to the fallen animal.

Kida waited until he had it hoisted over his shoulder and got near her before she had to turn her back on the view of the dead body. They walked in comfortable silence out of the thin trees. It was a while until they got to the camp again, but it was still a shorter time than their hike into the woods, going slow as Legolas pinpointed where the animals were.

As he dropped the deer by the fire and Kida sat far away from it, the group made a light cheer at their return. "Nice shot." Aragorn whistled lowly at the arrow in the eye.

"It was Kida." Legolas pointed out, standing tall and smiling towards her as Gimli began to cut the deer open.

"It was an accident." She added quickly, refusing to look.

There was a bit of laughter, from Gimli and Aragorn mostly. As if it figured she had done it on accident. "How did you sneak up on it?" Aragorn asked. "Kida is not exactly a quiet person."

She threw a rock at him but missed entirely. "Hey!" She yelled, insulted.

"She was very loud, and sat in a tree until the deer was in range." Legolas ignored her cries of offense and answered lightly.

"Waiting for the prey to come to you." Boromir commented as Sam began to cook the deer meat on their fire. Kida looked at the man speaking. "Not exactly the tactic of a hunter or warrior."

Kida took her bow and knocked an arrow quickly, aiming at Boromir. "I'll show you a hunter." She said threateningly but didn't really mean it. By the way Boromir laughed at her, he knew it as well.

She dropped the bow and disarmed herself, putting the quiver and weapon next to her two swords that sat by her.

"Why did you kill an animal you refuse to eat?" Aragorn lit a pipe as he asked.

There was a pause. Kida never even thought of that. Just that they needed food for the others and there was nothing but rabbits for two days, that she also refused to eat. She had still been opting for bread and whatever else they had.

She was sarcastic. "Oh no, I have the provider instinct! The shame!"

Everyone laughed at her.

As they ate deer, she lied back in the grass and watched the sky grow dark. Soon the fire was put out as well. There was talking until it would have been too dark to see anyone clearly and then the only sound was the night. Some birds going to rest, bugs making chirping sounds or flying by. Kida sat up in the quiet and saw that everyone but Aragorn had gone to sleep, in many different places. Aragorn sat no more than ten feet away, still smoking his pipe.

She thought about Legolas claiming she was in love with Aragorn. It didn't feel right, and it wasn't easy to think it, so it had to be wrong. Not that she knew from experience. If there was one thing, truly, that she had never done, it was fall in love. But the thought that that could change had her reaching for her blanket and not talking to him.

But considering she was the only thing larger than a bird making noise, Aragorn noticed she was awake. He put out his pipe and stood up. Kida sat, blanket over her legs, as he walked over to where his things were, next to her. He sat and found his own blanket in his pack before turning to Kida. In the dark, she still saw him smile slightly.

"Good night." He lied back with the blanket up to his chest.

Kida did the same, but she didn't think she'd be able to sleep. Not even a minute went by before she rolled onto her side, forcing her eyes to stay closed, but it wasn't any help. A few more minutes and she opened her eyes. Next to her Aragorn looked asleep. She felt insane, steeled her nerve, and impulse led her to move closer. Curiously, she leaned over Aragorn and felt like a movie character as she kissed the sleeping man, like a reverse Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty.

It was only to sate the nagging that maybe she was in love with him. And it had been two years since she ever had to make a move on a boy, so she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she had to flirt. Especially with the character she had been infatuated with since she was twelve, who came to life in this crazy and paranormal situation she was in.

It lasted a second, a moment at most, before Kida made herself pull away. She felt a fluttering in her stomach the entire time. It was enough that she meant to lie back again and force herself asleep, but a warm hand caught the back of her neck and pulled her back down. Aragorn was very much awake, and stealing a kiss from her like she had done to him. Having the man responding in a kiss, she noticed, did a lot more than give her stomach butterflies.

The kiss was gentle and needy, oddly polite. Living in her world, her time even, men usually pushed for more, kisses were quick and uncaring, and she never enjoyed them. But this kiss had her feeling like the pushy one as she returned it. She was the one who wanted to do more, kiss deeper, be quick. But she held back and copied Aragorn's leading, up until the moment that he pulled back from her, the smallest space between their lips.

Kida then realized what had happened and her face went flush. "Good night." She squeaked at him and quickly rolled away to go to sleep.

She heard Aragorn chuckle and, embarrassed, actually managed to sleep.

* * *

**AN/ Finally a little Kida/Aragorn happenin'. Also accidental Katniss moment with Kida, that I did not notice until now. Eek. But I finally cleared things up with Legolas, for the few who commented that he should not be strung along. He wasn't, he figured things out because he is a smart elf. **

**I love you frequent reviewers! (By the way). And new reviewers, as well. I'm pretty excited for my story where it is and can't wait until you all read what I've been writing recently, but that will be much later - I've written twice as many chapters as I've posted, which is why I post quickly. So keep reviewing and reading, because the best will come!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

Kida knew where they were. She wasn't remembering much, but they had finally reached that downhill path against a cliff face, a lake ahead. Out of excitement, she didn't search the walls like Gandalf was for an entrance, because she knew where it was. She went ahead of them, practically bouncing with each step but careful of the slippery stones. Not that she was looking forward to what was going to happen next, but it beat walking for endless days, for now.

"The walls of Moria." Gimli spoke in awe and wonder as they got closer to it. By then Kida stood near the lake, but was a paranoid distance away, knowing what was in it.

Gandalf reached the smooth area Kida felt the door would be. The clouds began to shift, and in a much more amazing was than Kida expected, veins of light appeared on the face of the cliff, grooves etching themselves to match. It glowed bright, the design of a door, a tree, and words so very similar to everything she'd seen in movies.

"Itidin." Gandalf paused and ran his hands over it. "It mirrors only starlight and moonlight." He gestured to the words with his staff. "It reads, "The door of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter." "

Merry chimed. "What do you suppose that means?"

Kida only just moticed how confident Gandalf seemed as he answered. "It's quite simple. If you are a friend, speak the password and the door will open." He turned back to the door and put his staff to stone. "Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!"

Nothing happened save for the wind blowing a little harder, for a second. Kida watched his disappointed look and he went on, chanting more incantations. She couldn't cheat and tell him, she had thought this one through before they got here. This was something she could change, she was sure of it. If Pippin and Merry didn't disturb the water, and that octopus thing didn't attack, there was no way that Gandalf would agree to enter the tomb of Moria once the doors opened.

Knowing they would have to wait a while, though not exactly how long, Kida went nearer to the wall and sat on a rock. She had to shift twice to make herself comfortable on it. After a while Aragorn took a seat at her side. They were behaving incredibly normal around each other after their kiss, not speaking of it or acting out any more than that since. Though Kida did often have small fantasies like a teenage girl, and she kept reminding herself that she was twenty-two, not sixteen. She could behave, and would, despite her hormones.

"Do you know the password?" Aragorn whispered, leaning towards her. Their shoulders were pressed together and it was the most contact she had gotten from him in days.

Kida shook her head in a lie. "I've never been here before." She spoke vaguely.

He smirked. "But you knew we'd come here." His voice was low and his head bent down near her ear. Kida was hypersensitive to it all now, even though this was no different than how he acted before. "You've mentioned Moria, a few weeks ago now. I assumed you'd know more."

"Nope." Hoping to calm herself she shifted again, to cover that she was leaning away from him.

"Do you know anything of what's ahead?" Aragorn wasn't smirking anymore. There was no smile, no light to his voice. This was now a business talk.

Kida looked up at him. "Yes." She admitted. But she said that smallest detail coming up that she could think of. "Frodo is the one who figures out the door."

Aragorn looked at Frodo, who was talking with Sam, both of them resting heavily by the water. "I have never met a halfling as brave and bright as him." He mentioned nobly. "I will go with him to the end."

"I know." She smiled and put her hand over his. He gripped it in his rough fingers for a second before they both let go. "And I'll do my best."

Aragorn lifted his brow. "That isn't a very positive statement for someone who seems to know what will happen."

Kida slouched and crossed her legs. "Not everything, and the thing that _sucks_-" She stressed the word and he figured it to be used in the way she had said it before. Not good, not fun, a bad thing. "-about knowing the story without me in it, is that I don't know my own future. I may never see home again."

Sadness filled her, and Kida found herself looking at Boromir. He definitely wouldn't see home again, see his brother, his corrupt father. Kida had a good chance of, in comparison, being him. Not seeing her insane mother again, her sword fighting uncle and baking aunt, her nephew she hardly knew. She regretted not visiting them more now, spending all her money to travel to Renaissance fairs instead, buying swords, barely making rent half the time. Suddenly she also really missed Bonnie, and hoped that damned squirrel liked Rivendell.

Aragorn knocked her out of her review of regrets by kissing her forehead in a comforting way. She rubbed the spot as he got up. "I have to send the pony away. You should stop thinking bad thoughts from now on." He told her.

As Aragorn went to Sam and Bill, the pony, Kida only just remembered it. He sent away the horse, and then scolded Merry and Pippin for throwing rocks. Very soon they would be in the mines, after fighting off a giant octopus. She _definitely_ forgot about what she was thinking about and got up. Kida adjusted her pack and went over to stand by Gimli and Gandalf.

She watched Aragorn comfort Sam about sending the little horse away, and then it trotted off. Several plops of rocks in water followed and Merry and Pippin started to throw stones in a very bored manner. The black surface of the water rippled and the little rings fanned out. Pippin picked up a stone and drew back to throw it when Aragorn gripped his arm quickly.

"Do not disturb the water." He spoke ominously, and Kida actually felt a prickle of worry run through her.

He and Boromir exchanged a look as the ripples grew. Kida hadn't noticed that, and it didn't look natural with how they had been throwing stones. Aragorn's hand was poised hear his sword, and Kida felt the weight of the swords on her hip, ready to be drawn when needed. Gandalf stopped coming up with words to chant then and sat next to Frodo.

Then Frodo was staring at the wall. "It's a riddle." He said quietly, and Gandalf raised his eyebrows while Kida tensed, mentally chanting _come on, you know it._ "Speak, friend, and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?"

"Oh." Gandalf looked ahead. "Mellon."

With that, the rock face finally divided, quiet as can be. The stone slabs swung outward and there was just black to see. Darker than the night, because at least out here they had star and moon light. Everyone merged together to go in, but Kida stood near the back, mentally prepared to protect if only her body would comprehend and let her grip her sword.

They hadn't yet noticed the bodies, and Gimli spoke cheerfully. "So, master elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the dwarves; roaring fires, malt beer, red meat off the bone." He was salivating nearly at the image in his mind. "This, my friend, it the home of my cousin, Balin. And they call this a mine... A mine!"

Gandalf spent time blowing light onto the stone tip of his staff, and as Gimli finished scoffing and cheering there was light in the chamber. Kida could see the death as well as anyone else. Old bodies, skeletons, covered in webs, armor rusted, arrows sticking out of them. Their weapons, axes and swords, were scattered on the ground upon death. It was more gruesome than she ever thought it would be, and the entire mine smelled of dust and slightly like rot.

"This is no mine." Boromir shook his head at the devastation. "It's a tomb!"

Gimli cried out and Kida felt the pain and sick he showed. "Oh no. No... No. No!" He yelled.

Legolas walked carefully around the bodies and knelt to take an arrow out of one. Kida could see the old tip as he held it in the light. "Goblins!"

Aragorn was the first to draw his sword, triggering everyone else to draw weapons. They backed up slowly and towards Kida, who stayed right in the doorway of the mine.

"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here." Boromir said.

Kida suddenly lurched to the ground and saw Frodo do the same, her elf-made sword fell out of her hand and she was dragged back. The octopus. What she failed to realize was that as another member of the fellowship, she was another target, and now she was hanging his above the black water with the hobbit it was meant to happen to.

"Holy crap!" She shrieked as a dozen, two dozen more tentacles snaked out of the water.

Suddenly she was glad for that second sword, as dull as it may be. It would still cut if she could get a good swing in. She drew it and stabbed upward to the tentacle wrapped around her right foot. The grip loosened and dark blood dripped on her before the monster let go of her. Kida screamed and landed on the thick part of another tentacle. It was hovering the ground and fighting fellowship, so she lashed out again, cutting the tentacle off and falling with the severed piece of the creature onto the ground.

Aragorn picked her up off the ground quickly and away from another grabbing, whipping tentacle. She re-gripped her sword as he lunged to the tentacle that was holding Frodo up in the air. Kida swung at whatever was in front of her until she saw Aragorn cut the sliming limb and Frodo fall. She didn't wait to see Boromir catch the hobbit before she ran to the door of Moria, picking up the sword she first lost.

"Into the mines!" Gandalf yelled just before she had picked up the sword.

"Legolas!" Boromir shouted as Kida turned, the hobbits running past her.

The thing was still attacking as Legolas shot it in the head. It made this horrifying sound that she didn't remember from the story she knew, and the rest of the men ran in, Boromir carrying Frodo. Aragorn grabbed Kida's arm and pulled her back from watching as many coiling arms reached out. They grasped the door and Kida stumbled back as they pulled. She fell, among the bodies and weapons, out of Aragorn's grip at the ground shook and the doorway was sealed off by endless rocks.

It was pitch black. Worse than before, when they at least had the open door of Moria to light the entry. Quicker than before Gandalf let his staff. The glow was creepy and Kida shrieked to herself when she saw her had was on a skull. She scrambled to her feet faster than she had ever moved in her entire life.

"We now have but one choice." Gandalf spoke ominously. Kida got goosebumps and if she had actually eaten recently she would have vomited. Any adrenaline she had when fighting the octopus had left her the moment the rocks had fallen. "We must face the long and dark of Moria. Be on your guard... There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world."

They began walking down the steep stairs that led deeper into the mine. Kida wiped any dust from falling on bodies off of her with tremoring hands.

"Are you alright, Miss Kida?" Sam asked her, and she almost startled. She hadn't realized that he was near her.

She forced a smile and it felt tight. "I'm good." Kida was fine, generally, maybe not good but it was the answer she came up with first. "How are you?"

"I'm good as well. Just wanted to make sure you didn't need anything." Sam was comforting and even though he knew she was forcing her smile he ignored it and faked a smile in return.

They neared a very precarious bride. It looked thin and crumbling, and they would have to go single file across it, very carefully. Kida was at the back of the group, so as Aragorn waved everyone across carefully, he ended up behind her going across.

"Are you alright?" He asked as she over cautiously crossed it. Each step she took was sliding so she was sure of her steps, but she refused to look down.

A scared little laugh left her. "H-Horrible time to mention I'm d-deathly afraid of heights." She stuttered and kicked a rock off the bridge. "T-trees I can do, but straight falls down are really, really bad."

Gandalf spoke. "Quietly now. It's a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence will go unnoticed." The quiet words still echoed.

As he had said it, Aragorn placed his hands on Kida's sides and led her on. "You don't have to be that cautious." He whispered when the wizard ahead had finished. "I could catch you."

It really was helpful. To hear the words and feel his hands. Kida still didn't look down, but her steps were more sure and she concentrated only on the grip the ranger had on her waist. The last few steps off the bridge she practically ran, she was so anxious to be on solid ground. She would have to give up on her fear, and soon, because she knew a lot more horrible heights were to come.

* * *

They walked through a cemetery of dwarves. A real one, that had once probably been great, but the battle had wrecked them, more bodies lie about than graves, and there was graffiti in old dried blood likely written by goblins. It was disgusting and sinister and musty in smell and air. Not far after that, to Kida's relief, bodies seemed to stop and then the path forked. From where they were, there were three choices to make.

Gandalf paused from guiding than and looked at all three tunnels. "I have no memory of this place." He said and Kida, despite the implications of the words, felt a little excitement at one of her favorite lines from the story.

Defeated, the hobbits dropped what they were carrying first. They had been walking for the entire day, and however many hours now it was that they were in the mine. Kida joined in on the giving up nature as everyone sat about. She, personally, opted for a stair rather than a rock or flat ground. There weren't any bodies here, but one stray skull about four feet away from her that, unnerving enough, seemed to stare at her. She stared back like it was a contest.

Don't blink. Don't blink. Of course, she would blink long before the skull, but thinking of it as a game, as a contest, made her deal with the fact that it was a dead dwarf. When she did blink she realized she might be a little insane and blew a raspberry as she looked away from it. As she waited for something to happen she pulled at the end of her hair and realized it had grown. Not a whole lot, but it had. And it would grow even more. And she wouldn't have her mother to tell her that her face looked fat and make her cut it.

"I think I miss my crazy mother." Kida spoke in general, feeling a heaviness in her heart.

Boromir was the nearest, and looked over at her when she said it. "Is she really insane?" He asked her curiously, like it was interesting. Then again, family issues to anyone outside of the family were very popular. Just look at reality television.

"Um, I guess not." Kida tried not to think of Boromir's own father. "She breaks into my house annually. If I don't keep my hair short, she would cut it when I'm sleeping, which is really creepy. When I got Bonnie she actually made a bet with a few of her friends that I would be dead in a week."

Aragorn gave a scoff of a laugh. "How could that little thing kill anything? She would be more likely to befriend and orc than to kill even a bug." He mocked the little squirrel, who'd likely be forcing someone to pet her right now if she were still there.

The main thing about the death bet was rabies, but apparently that didn't seem to be a way to die here. Kida just shrugged. "She's paranoid." She didn't want to explain further than that.

"You sound like an only child." Boromir commented a bit forlornly, and Kida wondered if he was thinking of his brother, or his father, or both.

But either way his words brought up memories that she wasn't sure she wanted to remember. It had been a really long time since she thought of it. It was always a little painful, and her heart broke before she even opened her mouth to answer him.

"I had a brother." Kida's voice nearly cracked. At her sudden confession it wasn't only Boromir who was listening intently, but they were all staring at her. "We were very close, I wanted to be like him, strong and quick and make everyone laugh. My mother favored him."

She looked away from nine pairs of staring eyes, picking at the cloth of her pants. "He died in an accident." She meant car crash but they wouldn't know what that was. "I was twelve, and he was fifteen. After than I tried to be more like him to make my mother happy, and as soon as I got a sword I fought, because that was what he always wanted to do. But my mother still doesn't see me as anything but the daughter she was stuck with."

"Your brother." Frodo mentioned, not leaving her in the pause of silence. "What was his name?"

Kida smiled to herself. "Anton."

It had been nearly six years since she had been able to say his name. She had nobody to talk to about it for so long, that now, while it hurt, she felt better knowing he hadn't disappeared off the face of the Earth. Not like she apparently had.

Conversation carried on quietly, while Kida went back to having a staring contest with the skull of a dwarf.

* * *

**AN/ Kida history a little more revealed! It's why I've often described her mother as difficult. Only after I wrote this did I realize that she is the Faramir of her family... That sounds bad, sort of. But Anton and Kida have been planned since the very beginning, but this was the only time I could mention him. Action in the next chapter though! You know, Moria is pretty damn awesome.**

**So yep. I have some writers block but that won;t effect any of you, because I have several chapters on reserve. So keep on reviewing and I'll do as I have been, posting every two or so days. I really love my reviewers and what they say, so pretty please keep it coming!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

"Are we lost?" Pippin asked Merry in a whisper after the fellowship had fallen into a long silence. As quiet as he was, the voice echoed slightly, only just, and Kida heard it and stopped wiping dust off the skull she held.

She had long ago gotten over looking at it and picked it up. "No." Merry replied quietly. "I don't think we are. Shhhh, Gandalf's thinking."

"Merry!" Pippin exclaimed and Kida shook her head. That was the opposite of being quiet.

"What?" Merry barked out.

Without a beat the other hobbit added, "I'm hungry."

Kida laughed to herself and tossed the much less dusty skull in the air, catching it when it came back down. It had been a very experimental toss and felt too much like disturbing the dead. She put the skull back down and stood to stretch. It had been hours, as far as she knew, that they came to this clearing and sat. Her arms were high above her head and her back popped more than once. It felt great, however, and she sighed as she brought her hands back down.

"There's something down there." Frodo whispered nervously as he crossed to Gandalf. He had been at the path they had come from, where there was a jagged cliff going down.

Then Kida remembered what was going on. "It's Gollum." She heard Gandalf answer.

Then Frodo exclaimed the title, repeating him. Kida stopped listening to the words, though the voice did carry to her ears, and walked around the circle of the area they were in to where all their things were deposited. She collected the bag she had been carrying since Rivendell and upon standing straight from grabbing it was staring right at Aragorn. He had moved to stand in front of her when she had gotten it.

"Man carel le?_ (What are you doing)_" Aragorn asked her a bit seriously. "Le gwanna?_ (Are you leaving)_"

She had to pause. It did probably look like she was trying to leave them behind, getting her bag when there was no hint as to which way to go. "Baw. _(no)_" She answered with a shake of her head.

Then Elvish failed her because she didn't know how to say every word she needed to. "We are. Soon." She whispered very quietly, the sound of Gandalf and Frodo talking keeping her voice from traveling. "But I'm not sure which way."

"Good." He smiled down at her and she felt this nervousness creep up.

All the days that had past suddenly felt wasted since she kissed him and had not done it again. Soon they would be fighting orcs for the first time as well, the mines a menagerie for odd things. Steeling her nerve Kida looked around. Nobody was paying attention to them, hidden off to the side of everything, listening to the story that Gandalf was telling. She took complete advantage and grabbed Aragorn's shoulder to balance herself as she stood on her toes to kiss him.

It was brief and warm, and she pulled away just after Aragorn responded to the pressure of her lips. "For good luck." She whispered and stepped back.

"Is that a custom of the people where you are from?" Aragorn reached forward and touched her lips, where his hand been a moment ago.

Kida smiled under his thumb. "It is when you care about someone." She answered against his hand, putting her own over it.

She jumped at Gandalf suddenly raising his voice with cheer. "Ah! It's that way!" He pointed to the right tunnel and Kida and Aragorn separated, still unseen. The fellowship scrambled to their feet from their resting places and all came to collect their bags.

"He's remembered!" Merry shouted in relieve as they did.

"No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down there." Gandalf spoke in a light voice, chuckling. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose!"

Kida laughed to herself as they went on.

* * *

They passed under an arched doorway into black and empty space. Kida's heart thump at the sight of vast shadow. Gandalf paused in front of everyone.

"Let me risk a little more light." He tapped his staff and the tip exploded with light. The whole room was lit as shadows seemed to flee, like they were living. Pillars, tall and great, in perfect rows, filled up what was before them. "Behold! The great realm and Dwarf City of Dwarrowdelf!"

Kida was amazed. The ceiling of rock was farther above them than she expected. The pillars shined as smooth as glass despite being carved out of rock. The huge halls stood empty, and the walls seemed black with the shadows that still lingered on them.

"Well, there's an eye opener and no mistake!" Sam exclaimed as they walked through it.

A whole lot was about to spill out of Kida's mouth at his beauty, but seeing the wooden door ahead of them, smashed in, stopped her mouth and heart. Black arrows were embedded in the timbers. Two skeletons clearly not human or dwarf sat crumpled by it. Gimli ran ahead.

"Gimli!" Gandalf tried to stop the dwarf, but he had continued to run to Balin's Tomb, and Kida knew it.

They followed at a jog. They found the room, lit with narrow streams of sunlight from a hole in the roof, a large stone slab in the middle of it and Gimli fallen in despair to his knees. Skeletons of dwarves and goblins alike were piled high and hazardously.

"No! No! Oh no!" Gimli began to sob.

Kida couldn't get past the sick feeling in her stomach and knelt down next to him, pulling the broad dwarf into a hug. Gandalf walked to read the stone slab atop the tomb.

"_Here lies Balin, son of Fudin, Lord of Moria_." He read off of it as Gimli cried against Kida. Her own breath was a bit shaky as she resisted tears. It was a hundred, thousand times worse going through this than it was in a movie. "He is dead, then. It's as I had feared."

He carefully lifted a rotting ruined book from the white stone. It was disgusting, covered in old dry blood and seeming just as attacked as any dead dwarf around them. As he opened it pages cracked and one section of the book fell out, pages crinkled.

Kida heard Legolas whisper to Aragorn, trying to be quiet probably for Gimli's sake. "We must move on, we cannot linger."

The wizard began to read the last of the pages. "_They have taken the bridge and the second hall: We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long... The ground shakes... Drums in the deep... We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. Will no one save us?_" He paused and looked up worriedly. "_They are coming_."

Pippin backed up nervously from the tomb and Gandalf. He stumbled unseen against the well, nearly falling again a precariously balanced, armored skeleton. It didn't fall, and he made sure no one saw as he turned to it. He was only a little curious, and reached out to touch the arrow sticking out of its chest. It felt, a clattering, echoing bang down the well.

Kida stood, startled, and the fellowship stared in caution and shock. Every bang of the skeleton made Pippin flinch, and when it took a chain and bucket down with it, the hobbit looked simply horrified. After the last bang, a moment of silence, Gandalf charged forward angrily towards Pippin.

"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" He looked down the well, holding the now closed book.

Pippin looked chastened and guilty. There was a very faint thump that caused them to be silent again. Another beat, from the depths below, coming from the well, was slightly louder. Each one that followed was even louder until they could be heard from the open door as well. The sound was as if the entirety of Moria was turned into a drum. Horns blasted nearby, and there were cries and footsteps heading their way.

"Mr. Frodo!" Sam cried in worry and Kida stumbled in shock at his voice.

Frodo looked down and there was a cold blue glow coming from the scabbard of his sword. Sting. He drew the blade and it was lit up like a light.

"Orcs!" Legolas shouted.

Aragorn gestured to the hobbits. "Get back! Stay close to Gandalf." He told them urgently.

Boromir ran to the door as swords were drawn. He looked out for a moment before pulling them closed. Aragorn and Legolas began to block them with benches and long discarded weapons. "They have a cave troll!" Boromir told them all.

Gimli gave a roar, wielding two axes, any sorrow replaced with rage. "Let them come! There is one dwarf yet is Moria who still draws breath!" He shouted.

The doors were broken open, wood fragments and all the thing pressed against it flying out. Kida drew both her swords and swallowed a lump of fright as a near thirty goblins rushed the room, followed by the large cave troll. This was no longer practice, or a competition with dull swords in Vermont. This was real, and it was proven the moment she swung her sword into the side of one of them. It went in too easily and she tried not to cringe as she let the creature fall and moved on the the next.

The second one could fight back. It had a short dagger and with a shriek managed to just cut through to her skin along her collar bone. It wasn't too deep, but it hurt. Kida didn't pause as it lashed out again and ducked away, swinging her own sword. It cut across the shorter creatures neck and it gargled as it fell. She cringed and fought on. She was running on adrenaline and no longer thought at all.

Not until there was only the cave troll left and she saw it stab into Frodo with a large spear. "Frodo!" She yelled in horror along with Aragorn.

Merry and Pippin jumped on the troll and Sam was cutting at its legs as Kida ran over. She ducked under the trolls swinging arm as it roared and Legolas shot an arrow into its head. It fell back, dead, then suddenly everyone was staring at Frodo, thinking he was dead, but Kida knew better. As Aragorn kneeled nearby, Kida rolled Frodo onto his back.

"Come on, wake up." Kida whispered and a moment later the hobbit coughed and took a deep breath. She was relieved despite knowing he'd be fine and sheathed her swords.

"He's alive!" Sam yelled in bright relief.

Kida helped as Frodo began to sit up. "I'm alright. I'm not hurt." He told them, and Kida figured he just had the wind knocked out of him. It had happened to her plenty enough times to know what it felt like.

"You should be dead." Aragorn commented, but amused that he wasn't. "That spear would've skewered a wild boar!"

Horrifyingly, the spear was still next to Frodo. It would likely stake more than just a boar. "I think there's more to this hobbit than meets the eye." Gandalf raised his eyebrows at Frodo.

The hobbit opened his shirt and revealed the shining, smooth chain mail. "Mithril! You are full of surprises, Master Baggins." Gimli cheered.

The drums began again and Kida pulled Frodo up to his feet. They didn't have time to stay hanging around. "To the bridge of Khazad-dum!" Gandalf shouted and they ran after his lead. "This way!"

They ran, quickly to the distant door, as Goblins began to crawl down the pillars and from other places like swarming bugs. It was an overwhelming army that began to rush towards them. An ear-shattering roar came from opposite the hall, an ominous red glow lighting in. The fiery light danced and the pillars began to cast eerie shadows, frightening the goblins into the black darkness.

"What is this new devilry?" Boromir asked in awe and fear, the same any one of them felt.

The ground began to shake and a huge shadow surrounded by flame fell across the hall. Gandalf whispered. "A Balrog. A demon of the ancient world! This foe is beyond any of you." He told them, and yelled urgently as it shifted. "Run! Quickly!"

They ran from the Balrog. They reached the frightful, tall stairway of Khasad-Dum before Kida caught sight of the Balrog for the first time. It was at least 40 feet, more reminiscent of a giant red man than she expected, with a distorted face and shape. A main of flames ran down its back and held a long blade that was large but looked small compared to the beast. Kida's fear for that creature beat her fear of heights and she went to the stairs.

"Lead them on, Aragorn." Gandalf told Aragorn, who was right behind her. Kida turned in surprise. She knew this would happen but it was not what she wanted to happen. "The bridge is near."

Like she had, Aragorn hesitated. "Do as I say." He pushed Aragorn away. "Swords are no more use here." Gandalf made eye contact with Kida.

Aragorn nodded and went to lead the way. Kida hesitated, looking at Gandalf. She said nothing to him and ran down the stairs, being as careful as she could be while being fast. Then they reached the broken stairs that Kida was not looking forward to. She didn't have the time to think about it, however, as Legolas grabbed her and jumped across with her.

She pushed away from him and squeaked, feeling light headed suddenly. Her phobia of heights was not at all helped by the sudden leap that could have gone very wrong. Nowhere near one hundred percent, she had to pretend she was as goblins began to shoot arrows. One of the only members of the fellowship with a bow, she drew hers and took an arrow. Kida didn't have great aim, and they were very far away, but she needed to try. She knocked an arrow and aimed high above the first goblin she could see, making a wish as she let go of the bow string.

Faintly, there was something falling. She had actually hit the Goblin and let out a cheer quickly. As she readied another arrow, Gandalf had jumped across. Boromir wrapped his arms around Merry and Pippin, leaping as Kida shot another arrow into the rock faces. Nothing fell, but that wasn't going to stop her. The next arrow hit, and she felt a hand pat her back.

"Good aim, but save your arrows." Gandalf told her. Kida stepped down a stair to make room for those who were now across, but followed orders.

There was a gruff shout from across the growing chasm. "Nobody tosses a dwarf!" Gimli scolded Aragorn.

He leaped on his own and it was incredibly unsettling when he began to flail at the edge of the rock. Legolas grabbed him by the beard despite the dwarves complaints and pulled him up. The Balrog began to pound into the wall above the stairs, to large for the door, and Kida watched the rocks fall from the roof. Aragorn and Frodo were still across, and the platform they stood on began to waver.

It leaned with the grinding sound of rock on rock and when it crashed against the lower part of the stairs Kida almost stumbled, putting her hands out to steady Sam as he did stumble. They turned and continued running, the wall the Balrog fought against nearly broken now.

"Over the bridge! Fly!" Gandalf yelled as they got near to it. Kida panicked at the sight of the slender bridge with no rail or kerb.

She also knew what was going to happen. Half way across the bridge, knowing Gandalf stopped, she looked back. For only a moment, the Balrog behind them, and the wizard facing it. He had a sword in one hand, staff in the other. Kida reached the end of the bridge and stood with Aragorn and Frodo.

"You cannot pass!" Gandalf yelled to the Balrog. It just made rageful sounds and got closer to him.

"Gandalf!" Frodo shouted in alarm back to the wizard, his friend.

He went ignored, and Kida felt a rock in her stomach of worry. Gandalf stood tall to head off the Balrog. "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun."

The Balrog put one foot on the bridge, a tremor through the ground, and stood tall. Its large wings spread threateningly. "Go back to the shadow!" Gandalf ordered of it.

The monster slashed out with its flaming sword. Gandalf blocked it with his own sword, much smaller than the fire, and a clang rang through the room. But the Balrog's sword was weaker and shattered into molten fragments.

"You shall not pass!" Gandalf's voice boomed.

Aragorn began to race forward, past Kida, with swords drawn. Before they could do a thing Gandalf slammed his staff down, breaking it and the bridge with a wave of white flame. The Balrog began to fall into the chasm and Kida's held her breath in anticipation of the next moment. It felt like slow motion, as the men stopped and Gandalf turned to join them again. Than the tongue of a red whip lashed into the air a hooked around his ankle, pulling him down.

Gripping the edge Gandalf only had a moment to look at them. "Fly, you fools!"

His grip failed and he fell. Frodo yelled, trying to move forward, but Boromir grabbed him. The fellowship ran away, up the path, and Kida followed slolwy, watching as Aragorn hesitated. "Gandalf!" He yelled as if hoping to hear a voice.

"Come on!" Kida called, walking backwards towards the archway.

The goblins were shooting arrows and Kida side stepped one that hit the ground near her. Aragorn turned around and grabbed her hand, heading towards the archway the others had gone through. She followed willingly, until, just before they disappeared, she felt a stab through both her cheeks. An arrow, well aimed and fully drawn, had been shot at her head, but the goblin's aim was off. When her mouth was open, taking a deep breath, it had gone through one cheek, then the other, pulling through her face with agonizing pain.

It was officially the worst pain Kida had ever felt. Blood pooled, hot in her mouth, but dripped cold down her cheeks and shirt. But her mind blocked out the pain as her body went in shock and made her keep running. Out of impulse when her mouth was full Kida swallowed and gagged at the horrific thought. Her hand was still in Aragorn's and he hadn't looked back, hadn't noticed. With her free hand she covered her throbbing, otherwise unfeeling cheek, fright filling her for when the pain would come, tears already streaming heavily down her face.

Fact was, you could only swallow a pint of your own blood before getting sick. Kida had surpassed that moment, nothing else in her stomach, by the time they finally reached the Dimroll Dale Door and the outside where everyone had collapsed in depression and wear. Kida stood behind them all and fell with her hands on her knees, spitting out and gagging on her own blood, cracking the half dried blood on her cheeks.

It made in incredible pool. As she spit, the pain hit her. Kida screamed. She had never ever screamed like this in her life, throat feeling like it had ripped out. But the sound matched the pain in her face.

"Kida!" Several of the men shouted seeing the blood. Sam's exclamation of "Miss Kida" was the only one that differentiated from the others. Two pairs of hands pulled her up, Aragorn and Boromir lifting her and revealing to others he face.

The holes themselves were black where the blood was thickest, in ripped star shapes, the three feathers of the arrow having cut her as well. Blood was spreading on her cheeks, hair sticking to it, and nearly the entire front of her shirt was soaked with it. Tears still pooled heavily in her eyes. Boromir then held the full of her weight as Aragorn stood in front of her. He didn't dare touch her face with his dirty hand and settled for placing one comfortingly on her bloody neck.

"How did this happen? When?" He sounded angry. Kida could hardly concentrate on his words, just the glaring, frustrated face. "How could I not have noticed? I held your hand the entire time."

Her head began to shake and she meant to say it wasn't his fault, but her stomach churned. Kida pushed away from Boromir and took a wobbling step away from Aragorn to puke a near pint of blood on the rock they stood on. That was the last thing she really remembered, puking and then falling against the rock, seeing spots in her vision.

* * *

**AN/ She's been hurt! She's been hurt! Yeah, I hate when people make fanfiction characters in stories like this, where they fight, because it's unrealistic. Especially for a female who doesn't really fight, even though mine knows how. And yeah, I decided half way through this chapter that she would be better with a bow than expected. I might change that... I don't know.**

**Also I'm super excited because the last few chapters have been getting up to five reviews! That seems like alot to me because I've written chapters than only got one on none, so I'm really happy. I also have more follows than I expected. So please keep reviewing and making me happy. Also, I'm over my writers block.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Kida wasn't sure what was going on or where she was. Her face just hurt. A moment passed and she began to notice she was slumped forward against someone, feet hanging freely. She was being carrier on someone's back, her chin placed carefully over their shoulder. When her eyes opened she saw a blonde elf man that was not Legolas.

Opening her mouth her teeth slid over the swollen cuts of her cheeks. "Haldir." She guessed to the elf, her voice painfully quiet.

The elf dipped his head with suspicion and looked to who was carrying her. Kida had slowly figured it was Aragorn by the height and brown hair in her face. "Come, she is waiting." He said.

Then Aragorn lifted her a little higher on his back. "Kida, how do you feel?" He asked her in a whisper as they began to walk. She had to figure that the fellowship followed, not risking hurting herself to turn.

"I got an arrow to the face and passed out for a day, maybe two. Feel great." She said in half assed sarcasm, gripping Aragorn so she didn't slip. "I highly recommend it."

"At least we know her mind was not affected." Boromir's voice came from behind an Kida closed her eyes. It made turbot around a lot less tempting. "That was a very Kida Valentine sort of answer."

Then Legolas spoke with some worry. "Aragorn, you have carried her for two days without rest. Will you allow me to take her yet?" Yet, as in he had asked before.

"As I have told you before, I am fine." Aragorn replied tensely.

But Kida began to disagree. "No, I want to walk." She told the man and released her grip on his shirt. "I want to walk near the back so I can see everyone."

"Last time you walked at the back you got shot with an arrow!" Gimli laughed at her.

She wasn't offended or confused as people talked. She remembered every moment of being shot and passing out, and felt incredibly average about it. Her freak out depended on how bad the scar it left would look.

But for now she could kill Gimli. The comment would likely kill any chance she had of walking on her own. "We are nearly to Caras Galadhon, and I plan not to put you down." Aragorn confirmed her suspicions.

"Put me down or I will bite you." Kida threatened though biting was a definite last resort with how much her mouth hurt. Talking alone was getting more and more painful with each word out of her mouth.

Haldir turned for but a moment and she saw his surprised face as she opened her eyes again. "You would bite Isildur's heir?"

Aragorn ignored her warning so, with Haldir watching and her making exhausted eye contact, Kida opened her mouth. Haldir turned away, either disturbed or uninterested. She moved her chin back off of Aragorn's shoulder and bit a very small part of his clothed skin, not daring to open her mouth wider. But biting down didn't hurt much, and she progressively bit down harder until the man she was chewing sucked in a breath.

"Release me. I will let you down, but you must walk with another person." Aragorn paused to lower himself and let go of her legs. Kida got off his back and made sure her footing was strong before letting go of her shoulders.

She definitely needed the help, because while she was able to stand and move, she felt herself sway already.

"You may put your arm on me, lass." Gimli offered brightly and came up behind Kida. His shoulder brushed just below hers. "I am certainly the right height for it."

A small smile tried to work onto her face, but it nearly felt like it split what had to be scabs on her face, and she stopped. Her arm went over Gimli and she was incredible thankful for his broad strength and hand on her back. They walked on, following Haldir, Aragorn rubbing his bitten shoulder. He very frequently looked back at Kida, but she was very caught up on watching her step. She did, a mile or so into the woods, catch Legolas staring at her.

"Be honest." Kida piped up and his eyes flickered to hers. At least he was looking away from the horrible cuts. "How bad is it?"

He hesitated, but there was no lie in his eyes as he spoke. "The wound is slightly large... It will scar, and heal slowly. As for the swelling... You are reminiscent of your pet."

She imagined Bonnie's chubby face full of bread and risked a laugh.

It was not too long until they were in the city among the woods of Lorien. Because it had been up a hill, by the time they reached it both Gimli and Legolas had a hand in helping her walk. It was beautifully fully of silver and gold and sleek rock, and Kida wished among all things she had a camera. That she could take pictures and tell the people who made the movies how wrong their sets were. But what they were not wrong about was Galadriel. Beautiful, tall, blonde and practically glowing, the elf woman even attracted the very straight, injured and jealous Kida to her.

They stood like they were in court, in trouble, in a line before Galadriel and Celeborn. Kida still held onto Gimli and Legolas, even though she didn't need the help to stand still as much. It was merely out of distraction that she kept her arms on them.

"Nine there are, yet ten there were set out from Rivendell." Celeborn began with an overpowering look of nobility passing over them. His gaze change for a moment, unnoticed by most, when he saw Kida. "Tell me, where is Gandalf, for I much desire to speak with him."

Eerily, Galadriel settled her gaze on Frodo. "He has fallen into shadow." She moved to peer at Aragorn. "The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all... Yet hope remains while the company is true."

She looked to Sam, who was a little to the left of Kida, and she say the hobbit stiffen under the watchful eyes. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Go no and rest for you are weary with sorrow and much toil." The last words came out as her eyes flickered to Kida.

"Tonight you will sleep in peace."

They left, Frodo lingering while staring at Galadriel, panicked. Just outside Celeborn's chambers and elleth came up to Kida and took full grasp of her, ushering the men away. She was confused at the sudden grabbing hands on her, leading her away from the others.

"What are you doing?" She asked a bit harshly, looking back at the men of her group, following one lone elf leading them in another direction.

The elf took no offense to her tone. "You are in dire need of healing, Milady, before you are shown to where your companions wait." She answered kindly.

So Kida stopped talking and let herself be led away. They were soon in an outdoor gazebo decorated in white and silver, with three elves who took turns generally hurting her to heal her. Really, they were washing her face and rubbing a paste of plants and oils on her freshly reopened cuts, which burned at first. Then the same foul smelling, painful, and horrible tasting paste was shoved between her teeth and cheek for the inside cuts.

It was half an hour, possibly more since her perception of time was horribly effected in this clockless world, until she felt the relief of pain she was seeking. They paste they had forced on her and instructed her not to swallow was doing the job it was meant to. At Kida's confirmation that she didn't feel as much anymore one elleth gave her a delicate looking silver cup of water to rinse her mouth, holding up a bucket to spit into.

After that they still woudn't let her leave, tended to or not. Kida was stripped and pushed into a cold bath. Two of the elves left, but the one who had led her there, who had washed her face, helped her bath. It was the most awkward situation in her entire life, having an lithe, little elf woman scrub her hair and back. Save for, possibly, seeing her Aunt Clara give birth. That had been horribly embarrassing and awkward as well, so much that Kida had to push the thought from the forefront of her mind to keep from getting sick.

When it came time to wear clothing again, Kida no longer had it in her to fight on what she wanted to wear, agreeing on the very first dress she saw. It was cold and a bit tight around her hips, but the rest of the green silk slid over her easily. Her neck was exposed and she could see the faint red cut under her collar bone from the first goblin she fought.

But dry, dressed, and with medical care, the elleth lead the way to the rest of the fellowship. Kida followed, without help walking, feeling better. But her feet were bare and the dress dragged on the ground. Not that was was complaining, as underfoot was nothing but soft grass, and the elf in front of her carried her boots and soiled clothes.

Kida was led to an outdoor pavilion set among the trees, and she could see the others sitting around a table, eating food the elves brought. The helpful elleth put Kida's things on a table and Kida walked into view of all the men. A selfconcious feeling spread through her as heads lifted. Aragorn's lips parted in light surprise as she walked into their grouping, hand poised halfway to his mouth, holding a cup.

"You look beautiful." Merry broke the silence first and stood. The little hobbit stood to pull out a chair for Kida.

She felt suddenly elegant, nobody ever having pulled out a chair for her. "Thank you." Kida said to his words and the gesture, sitting down.

Gimli laughed. "After seeing you fight I never thought I would see you in a dress! You look like a lovely little lass." He was as boisterous as ever, with a tankard of elvin wine in his hand.

"Um, thanks." She said again, a little more nervously. "I'll probably change, though I don't know where my pack is."

Aragorn put his glass down without ever having taken a sip. "It is in my tent. I can take you there after you eat."

He took it upon himself to place a few things on her plate, as he had been sitting next to her. Kida was almost overwhelmed by his hands moving into her space but a kind warmth stole over her instead when she realized what he had put there. They were thankfully things that would be very easy to eat, like soft rolls, grapes, and very tender pork. Something that took minimal chewing because, despite feeling better, her situation could change easily.

"Your wounds look particularly well." Boromir peered down the table at her as she ate, barely opening her mouth wide enough to take bites, worried for herself. "It is as if the elves took a week off the healing process. No longer is your face swollen and pale."

She scrunched her face and wished she had a mirror. It had been more than a month since she saw her face in anyway other than the surface of water. Then, maybe she should avoid her own reflection to keep from despairing over the marred flesh. Then the worst thought she could have crossed the fore front of her mind. What if she looked so bad that Aragorn didn't like her anymore?

Not that she was entirely beautiful before. She was average, and not just in her own eyes. Flat blonde hair, very normal figure, plain brown eyes, and a tomboy on top of all that. She was pretty, but in the way that out of a group of friends, half would feel differently about it. And scars changed everything, especially facial ones.

Immediately she could hear her mother's reaction, if she could only see Kida. "What the hell were you thinking? With a mug like that you'll never get married." She would well. Then, maybe, disown Kida claiming there was no chance to have grand children with her as a daughter.

It wasn't a far-fetched assumption, either. It had been the exact thing that her mother threatened when Kida wanted to pierce her lip. The same one used a year after that situation when she wanted a small tattoo. It was then used a third and final time five months ago when Kida tried to impress her mother and where make up that, apparently, didn't suit her.

But not for a moment did Kida let any of the fellowship see the effects of her inner turmoil. Her eyes stayed trained on her plate or the table top, and she ate in silence unless spoken to directly. She picked lightly at her food, not feeling as hungry as she had been, so when Aragorn seemed finish she looked up at him expectantly.

"Are you sure you are done?" He asked, looking at what was left on her plate, knowing the look in her eyes. Kida nodded.

He stood swiftly, and then gently helped pull out her chair as she stood. "See you later." She waved at the rest of the table, and though Aragorn had to lead the way to his room, she stepped out of the half enclosed pavilion first, leaving her things behind.

Aragorn watched her with worry but did not let her see. His hand slid over the small of her back, and though she wore a dress of cool silk, she was still a lot hotter to touch than Arwen ever was. "Come, this way." He urged her to the left path.

They fell into the calm, near silence on Caras Galadhon. Walked through the trees with winding tunnels around them, up to homes and higher areas. Aragorn had noticed how frequently, as they went places, Kida would marvel at each sight like it was meant to be, like she was meant to be there. Now, however, she stared down at the ground and occasionally puffed her cheeks, as if testing to see if they would still move.

"Are you alright?" Aragorn caught her attentions and she looked up into his eyes. It was upsetting to see the red of wounds upon her face and chest, but under it she was still small and sweet. Beautiful. "You are acting differently again."

Her eyes widened only slightly from the near bored or possibly drowsy expression. "Don't throw me in a pond again." She sounded amused. "Im harnannen! _(I'm wounded)_"

He couldn't bring himself to lighten at her joke, if it was one. "There is no pond near." He pointed out. "What is bothering you, Kida?"

"I'm not the kind of girl who blurts out all her troubles the moment someone asks them what's wrong. Remember?" She repeated the same words she had told him before. Before the council, before she had his trust, when they were in the Trollshaws.

"And I am not the kind of man who will accept that as an answer." He countered as they began walking up a set of stairs that lead up hill to the tents the fellowship were given.

Kida frowned and realized that was probably true. "Do you really want to be the guy who bullies someone who had been unconscious for days and injured?" Her attitude seeped into her words.

Aragorn stopped and held her hip, standing a stair below. She turned to him. "I don't want that... I want to be the man who you turn to in discomfort. You do not willingly tell me anything, and I wish that to change."

The words too perfectly explained Kida. But it was how she always been, because nobody had asked her how she was in so long, and she never felt the reason to bring up anything that would have people judge her. Kida didn't have to confess anything though. There wasn't a reason to talk about her mother or her insecurities about how she would look in weeks when the red of her cuts faded. She could settle her nerve with just two questions.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" Kida watched Aragorn's face change.

It wasn't was he expected to hear from her, a question like that. He in fact just expected her to tell him she was in pain or scared. Not for a moment did he think her problem would be on how she looked. It didn't cross his mind that the scars would be a problem, as he had plenty of his own.

He looked at her. "Of course." He answered.

She felt a tickling of girlish glee, but the feeling fell before she asked her second questions. "Even if I end up horribly scarred?"

"Yes." The word was immediate, deep with meaning and feeling.

Leaning into Aragorn, Kida lifted her arms to hold him around the neck loosely. "Then we have nothing to talk about." She promised and put her forehead to his, near the same height as she stood on that one stair above him.

He smiled as their noses brushed together. "Come, then. You should get your bag and I will show you to the room meant for you." He leaned away and began to lead the way up the stairs again.

It was all he could do not to lean in and kiss her, for a third time. The moment had felt so right, but he worried for Kida. He didn't want to hurt her, or any way put her off, especially if they were meant to travel together for the time to come. True to his word, he only got her bag and then saw her to the tent not more than a little ways from his own.

* * *

They were in Caras Galadhon a few days and Kida had grown to ignore her mouth. It now just felt like a bruise did, frequently sore but no longer as if her skin would rip with each word she spoke. Since they were in a city, no longer camping, she had grown to counting the days that passed again. This one would be the third, and she sat in a pavilion of carved stone and silver, a floor of grass, with the rest of the fellowship. Most days they were separate, but before night fell, as well as after, they managed to convene together again.

Soft singing reached them from many voices in the city, singing a common song in Elvish. "A lament for Gandalf." Legolas spoke sadly as he heard the words.

"What do they say about him?" Merry asked.

Kida had looked it up before, and only ever remembered the chorus of it. But the rest she could translate in her mind. "I have not the heart to tell you. For me, the grief is still too near." Legolas went on.

The words she hadn't heard before brought tears to her eyes, and she was thankful for the warmth of Sam and Merry sitting on either side of her. It made her feel less depressed as sweetly sung words reached her ears. When it got to the part she did know, she sang along, low and under her breath.

"Ilfirin nairelma nauva i nauva _(Undying is our regret, what should be shall be)_  
Ilfirin nairelma ar ullume nucuvalme_ (Undying is our regret and yet we will cast all away)_  
Nauva i nauva melme nóren sina nairelma._ (What should be shall be, our love for this land is our regret)_"

By the end of it, as the voices carried on, her tears spilled over. Merry had put his head on her shoulder while she was singing. Kida listened as the song carried on with words she did not know and saw Aragorn and Boromir talking across the way. She knew the topic and only felt worse, but for once as she felt shallow in mood she had friends, real friends, to keep her warm and comfort her.

This world, fiction or not, was where she felt she was meant to be. She hoped, while she would miss home, she would never have to leave Middle Earth. Not when she had this much love for it and the people in it. After all, in a few months, things could only look up.

* * *

**AN/ Oh my God I have neglected my story! It's been a while since I wrote and I hadn't even realized it, so now the posts are catching up to what I've been writing. **

**Anyway! I have gotten more reviews on the last chapter than any other and I was so shocked! It's like every on of you suddenly popped out of the reserve to say something, because some of my reviewers hadn't reviewed in a while :D I'm so grateful! Please keep it up.**

**Also, I realize her injury is very creepy/unlikely/depressing and so on, but goblin arrows are smal points, the feathers wouldn't cut too deep, so they aren't huge! And, haha, Aragorn would definitely kiss her better if he wasn't worried about hurting her further. **

**IMPORTANT! The next two chapters I think are in Caras Galadhon because they do spend a month there in the timeline, though the movies don't show them well if you didn't know that. So I am making them stay, and taking advantage of a fanfickers rights through out.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

* * *

Kida dreamed of her brother Anton. They were in the backyard of their childhood home together. It was more a memory than a dream, as they played played with base ball bats and the round metal covers of their garbage cans, sword fighting. It was when he was fifteen just before he died, and while Kida was meant to be twelve, in her dream she was her full twenty-two, face scarred but laughing. Yet Anton always felt so much older than her, even as in her dream they both jumped over the sprinkler and around their small jungle gym like kids.

Aunt Clara and Uncle Clive sat at that red plastic picnic table that was always on the patio. Then Kida's mother, face buried in a newspaper, as well as her father. It had been when he was still around, before the family broke up, before Anton died in a car with him, and before her mother kicked her father out. Everyone Kida ever had to love, in one yard.

Then Anton hit Kida's finger with the bat, like she remembered her had done when she was little, by accident. She cried and sat on the swing, but Anton was comforting her before either adult could make a move to get mad at them.

"I'm so sorry, I'm sorry." He spoke with breathy panic, grabbing her hand. Fifteen and he hadn't been the kind of brother to distance away from his family, kissing her bruised finger. "You'll be okay."

But Kida sobbed still, twenty-two, into the young boy's shoulder. "Oh, come on, Kida. It isn't like I hit you with a real sword." He pat her back, laughing at her.

Then the dream changed from memory as he pulled back and pinched both her cheeks. She could feel the pain of the still healing wounds on her face while he smiled, all teeth showing. "Better hide that face. Mom will kill you for it."

It wasn't scary, or did it even make sense, but Kida woke up quickly, uncomfortable in her own skin, hot despite the very cool air. She got out of bed, a simple bed but soft none the less, and pulled on a pair of tights before escaping into Caras Galadhon in only the tights and a large white shirt. The outside air was a lot more pleasant than the only slightly confined tent. Trying to be quiet, Kida walked past Aragorn's and Boromir's tent to go down down hill, to get to the trees not inhabited by elves.

Time found her in an empty pavilion, sitting on a stone bench and rocking with her palms pressed into the top of her knees. Such a simple dream had her beyond stressed, her stomach in knots. But in time, in the cold, her panicked fever fell and she calmed considerably. Then the only sound was the gentle wind through the trees of Caras Galadhon, as well as the occasional sound of insects.

"It has been more than a few days since you have arrived in the woods of Lorien." A low, yet feminine voice told her. Kida jumped, but it was only Galadriel, walking around to her front. Recounting slowly, Kida realized it was at least a week since they first showed up in this city. "Yet this is the first time you have been on your own, Lady Valentine. You are popular among your fellowship."

She felt like her entire being was on display, in more than was could be seen, but known as well. Kida felt she had no secrets, which could be very true when speaking to Galadriel. "They are my friends." Kida said.

"The kinds of friends that you keep secrets from, as well as a friend who is a bit more." Galadriel spoke, mouth moving. But then her voice was only in Kida's head, her mouth not moving, her eyes on Kida's face. "_I know you come from another world. Kida Valentine, of Earth, where this world is but a story. Yet this is not a dream. It is real, it is meant to be._"

Kida startled at the voice in her mind, but she spoke out loud. "Do you know if I'll stay here or go back?" She asked desperately, not knowing what she hoped the answer to be but needing to know something.

"_Your fate is not mine to see, and your story is not one I have heard before._" Galadriel whispered into her head, not speaking still. "_But you may see your own fate, Lady Valentine, if it is what the mirror shows._"_  
_

For a moment she had to think, remember what the mirror was. The basin of water where Frodo saw his own future, Kida realized. "If you shall like to look, you may come with me." Galadriel opened her mouth again.

Kida was on her feet in a second, as this was near enough to the answer she wanted. "Please. I have to know."

It was a selfish need. To know her future. To keep herself from feeling this horrible knot every now and then that she may die, or if she got in too deep she would break Aragorn's heart if she was forced to leave. She needed to know, only for herself, if she would be able to stay and not regret it if was wasn't.

Galadriel kindly, slowly led the way. Her white dress was in fact near glowing in the moon and star light. The walk was short, and soon they were in a small glade, separate from the rest of the city, a fountain built into the Earth. In the middle of the area was a basin that stood like a bird bath, but in use was so much more. Kida stood in front of it, nervously waiting, as Galadriel filled a silver pitcher with water from the fountain.

As the elleth poured the water, the basin's contents began to glow lightly, like there was a star underwater. Galadriel stepped back, so in turn Kida stepped forward. Her heart was racing unevenly as she braced her hands upon the sides of it. She swallowed with effort before making herself look down into the water. Its scenes filled her vision as if her eyes were closed and she had dreamed them.

Aragorn's face was first, smiling at her. Frodo and Sam talked to each other, then Merry and Pippin looking like they did when they had asked Kida to sing. It changed from meaningless expressions, smiles, to Aragorn and Kida kissing. Only for a moment before she saw war. The final war outside the gates of Mordor, the eye falling on her, bright and burning. Fear stuck her heart as it seemed to burst, the tower fell, and the city followed.

She heard Gandalf's voice as she watched Mordor fall into a pit. _"You are not lost to us, Miss Valentine_._"_ He spoke as Kida watched herself begin to fall with the city. _"There is hope."_ She saw her mother's face, tears streaking down her cheeks, and surprisingly the woman was holding Bonnie. The first and only time Kida saw her hold the squirrel._  
_

Then she was looking at Minas Tirith, but from above. It had been small, at first, but grew and grew as Kida felt like she was falling. Before she could fall, the vision felt far too real, she pulled away from the water. She fell onto her knees in front of the silver basin, not knowing when she had started crying, but tears fell down her face. Of course they would, she had thought, because she would be sent home.

But Gandalf's words rang through her mind in echo. _"There is hope..."_

* * *

Kida left her tent early each morning. It felt a bit odd, lonely, though the other tents were very near by. She was so used to sleeping near the men, waking the hobbits, sword fighting with Boromir or having a moment alone with Aragorn. Now, she left her tent early, Aragorn was usually doing something around Caras Galadhon, and the rest slept on save for Legolas, who was punctual in by up just after the sun broke through the trees, no matter how little. Sure she spent time with all of the men at one point or another, but for the most part Kida had to wait outside the tents for it to happen.

This morning, when she left her tent, a few male elves were walking on the path ahead. They were all carrying small velvet bags, but enough to be a bother to hold them all. One bag fell out of the arms of a very young elf, maybe younger than Kida depending on how they aged after birth, as he stumbled about. When he didn't notice that it was missing Kida pulled on her boots and jogged up to grab it.

The velvet bag was heavy with a few things that were odd and rectangular. Kida felt it over in her hands and walked quickly after the boy and the two men who seemed to really ignore him. She caught up to them despite stopping to put on her boots.

"Excuse me." She spoke up. The three turned, the boy nearly dropping another bag. Kida held up the one she had, but not out, seeing that the boy was carrying twice as many bags as the other two. "I found this on the path. If you want, I can help carry a few bags."

The oldest of the elves, taller and with near white hair, a few wrinkles on his face, looked Kida over. She felt a little less than presentable in yesterday's breaches and a shirt a little small for her. But the elf must have seen something to approve of, as he gave her the smallest of smiles.

"You may help the neth min. _(young one)_" He told her and Kida took a few of the velvet sacks from the shifting elf in front of her.

One felt the same as the one she had found, but the other three felt like they held beads or rocks. Carrying half of the young elf's bags, she followed the two that led the way, wondering what it was she was really carrying. "What are all these bags?"

The elf middle in age spoke up. "They are a delivery. We are the jewelers of Lorien." Which meant the beads were likely beads, or maybe diamonds. Other jewels, as well. "Our items now are for making rings."

She didn't even think before she excitedly blurted. "Can I watch?"

"Tancave. _(Certainly)_" The older one agreed, not allowing time for her to be embarrassed.

"Rim hennaid. _(Many thanks)_" Kida spoke happily in elvish.

They walked uphill until they reached an area with a hot fire burning bright. Away from it, the elves set the bags on long tables, stools around them. Kida followed suit and placed the bags down where they had. The young one pulled out a stool and gestured for Kida to sit there, so she did, watching as the three men all sat on the other side of the table.

The oldest unfolded a leather wrap, many carving tools tied to the inside. "I am Iauron. This is my son Taurion, and his son Nostalrion." He introduced the three, the middle one his son, and the youngest one being Nostalrion.

"My name is Kida Valentine." She claimed in return, watching the three don knives and small picks. Taurion opened one of the bags Kida had carried and pulled out a long block of wax with a hole down the middle. "What is that for?"

"Carving the design of the ring." Nostalrion spoke, sounding awkward. He probably didn't speak in anything but elvish considering how young he seemed.

That made sense, but Kida still did not understand how they did the rest of it. She had never thought about the technical side of jewelry, watching Taurion cut the wax like thick slices of bread. How did the wax become metal?

Iauron handed a slice of the white wax across the table to Kida. "Would you like to learn, Lady Valentine?" He suggested as she took it.

Kida turn the wax over in her hands, thinking that there wasn't anything else that she had to do for the day. "Sure." She smiled and accepted the picks given to her.

Then her handed her a tapered file. "You have to make the ring to fit your finger." He advised and began to file the hole of the wax.

He probably knew when to stop to make the right size, but Kida was knew and slid her ring finger over the file to figure out how far down on the file she needed to work the wax. Paranoid that she would break it, she was slowly spinning the file, over and over until it was lose enough to slide on it's own. By the time she had done that and experimentally put it on her finger, the three elves each had carved away most of the wax to make a smaller shape.

Taurion saw that she he finished sizing it and leaned forward on the table. "Begin to make the shape you like. Do not carve it too thin." He taught her, running the shark, knife like tip over the wax.

She found the same tool and began to carve. It wasn't very hard, to make a shape, but it was to keep it smooth. Losing her mind to the small word in her hands, she carved until it looked better. The band was smooth, and very different leaves sat on the top of the ring, one on either side of flower petals not unlike a lily. Kida almost said that she was done when she decided to make the band thinner.

That was the easiest thing she had done on the entire ring, and when it was done she excitedly slid it on her finger. She liked the ring even in plain white, and it fit to her hand pretty well. Kida wiggled it off her finger and ran a finger over the large of the two leaves, wishing she was a little more artistic so that the leaf didn't look so blocky.

While she had been out of it, carving the wax, the table had grown a little more cluttered. Several diamonds, emeralds, and other jewels sat on the table. As well as eight complete white rings of wax, carved in all different designs. She felt slightly incompetent until she remembered that not only were these men a family of jewelers with experience, but they were elves, with heightened senses that likely helped them plenty.

"Would you like to put a jewel on it?" Iauron asked as he finished another rings. Kida could easily bet that it was the fourth he had made. Most experienced, he had to have been the quickest sculptor.

Kida bit her lip and looked over the jewels. Expensive ones, larger in size than she had ever seen, and she knew in her world how expensive that they had to be. "You are the jeweler. You tell me what would look best." She said, making up for the fact that she didn't want to waste their supplies.

As the elf reached out she put the ring in his hand. As Iauron looked it over, Taurion leaned over his shoulder and looked at the design. They spoke in hushed elvish while Nostalrion just worked on, his tongue sticking out of his mouth slightly. Kida wasn't sure what they were saying, but she certainly heard celeb, meaning silver, and malina, which meant blue. She could easily imagine her ring in silver, and looked at the sapphires on the table, varying in size.

Iauron ran his fingers over the same sapphires that she was looking at and picked up on of the mid sized ones, a lighter blue in color. "This would look best in the middle of the flower with a silver band. Would you like me to carve the setting?" He asked her.

Since she had no idea how, or what it really meant, Kida just nodded. "Yes, please." She agreed and watched vigilantly as he carved part of the middle of the flower out.

After that Iauron had Nostalrion teach Kida about making molds. She got really excited when they were doing it. Especially when the young elf stuttered about how the mold would dry and then they would melt the wax out of it to pour the metal in. It made a whole lot more sense than Kida thinking the wax was special and turned to metal. So while the mold dried she got to melt metal over the impossible heat of the fire.

"I am so excited." Kida was bouncing on her feet, having just poured the metal into the mold that she held with a long set of tongs.

Nostalrion poured his own mold and she followed everything he did, putting it back in the fire for a moment. "Now... Now put the mold in the cold water." He instructed her and pointed at a trough.

Carefully, Kida moved to it and held the mold under the water. Nostalrion moved next to her and did the same. When he lifted it out, she copied again. Then he broke open her mold with a hammer. When the ring fell out it was still warm, but she was handed it and a rough cloth to polish it. It was a bit waxy from what was left in the mold, and looked much better than her original carving had.

It was no elf-work, but she was proud and polished it up best she could before she let Iauron set the sapphire in it. He slid it on her ring finger and Kida actually smiled hard enough to hurt her face. It was the very first thing she had ever made, unless cutting up a t shirt for Halloween counted when she was eighteen. And she enjoyed it incredibly. She may have even stayed around the help the men if they wanted any help if it hadn't been for her stomach growling.

Every one of the men heard it, she knew it, even if they didn't react. But Iauron did smile at her a few moments later. "If you come back tomorrow you may make another one." He told her. "It is midday and you must have things to do."

"I should see my friends." Kida got up from the stool she had sat back on and twisted the ring around her finger. She moved it as an after thought from her left ring finger to her right. "Hantale, Iauron _(thanks)_... Nostalrion, Taurion. I'll come back tomorrow."

She left the crafting area and walked down the hill to the pavilion she could usually find the rest of the fellowship in. It was lunch time, too, so they were there with food, everyone. Walking in Kida fell into a chair between Legolas and Gimli. She got some food after saying hello and sat tall, excited. Not for a moment did she think her ring would be interesting to the men, but she still felt proud even if they didn't notice it.

Maybe it was better that they did not notice, because after lunch she had an idea for her next ring. And she would definitely spend a lot more time on it than she had done on her own.

* * *

**AN/ Pffft, I got writers block again so I might be hesitant to update as quick from now on, but definitely will update within one week. I swear that. Thanks again to all my reviewers, and I know there is no Aragorn in this chapter, but I really like it. I always wanted Kida to be a jeweler, and I like my OC elves. So they're in the chapters that Kida is in Caras Galadhon. Please keep reviewing.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

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"Taurion, hold your hand up, please." Kida asked the middle elf as she received a cut of wax. He had the biggest hands, and as he held up his hand she held up the tapered file. "Le hannon, mellon nin. _(thank you, my friend)_"

He put his hand down as she began to file the inside band of her ring to size. "Lau 'osto. _(no worries)_." He told her in response.

She filed it a little bit larger than the finger she measured. For the entire night, she had contemplated ring designs and what to do. Kida's plan was to make a ring for Aragorn. Not for any reason other than it felt right, she wanted to do it. While they were in Caras Galadhon and she had the chance to, not that she would actually give it to him right away.

When she had it filed down, before she started to carve, she wanted a plan. "Iauron?" She caught his attention. "May I pick one more jewel, please? I don't have money-"

"I would not accept pay." He cut her off. "You are a guest to Lorien. You have passion." Iauron went to the locked chest the jewels were in and took out the velvet bags. "You may pick all the gems you wish, neth min. _(young one)._"

Kida's heart swelled. She did like carving the last ring, and this one was much more important than to waste time. As she looked through the small gems she thanked Iauron at least ten times for it. When it came to it she was overly excited about a marquise cut amethyst and two small rounds ones. She was nowhere near ready to make the ring, have not even started cutting, but now that she had the gems a better image was forming in her head.

At the table of men, carving rings as well as crafting them, she sat for a very long time. Longer than the day before, because she had eaten a large breakfast so that there was no need to have lunch. But because she was careful and every move was slow, it was taking much longer. The band alone was a twisting design of wax that had gaps in some places to look intertwined, thinner at the underside of the ring, and took her most of the day.

She was just making defined lines along the band when she heard her name. "Kida, I have been looking for you all day." Legolas stood just at the outside of their round working area.

Kida put down the wax ring. "Sorry, why?" She walked over to him, fully planning on returning to the stool soon.

Her friend and companion looked over the three jewelers. "There is meant to be a celebration, of sorts, later tonight. There has been stewards searching for you to fit you for a dress." He answered. "Also there is a bit of a debate going on with the fellowship as to who will court you there. It is between Aragorn, Merry, Pippin, and Gimli. Boromir backed down and while Aragorn offered he is not joining the fight nor backing down."

She could imagine what they considered a fight. Half-assed insults and 'pick me!' attitudes. While all of her wanted to go with Aragorn she was afraid she'd say something about the ring she was making, she was so excited. Instead she thought for a moment about who was left.

"I'll go with Merry." Kida saw that slight surprise in Legolas' eyes. Just as much as she wanted to, he was likely certain she would pick Aragorn. "Where do I have to go to get a dress?"

He flattened his expression of wonderment. "Likely your tent. I shall see you tonight." He bowed, likely because there was an event to go to, and left without asking her what she was doing with the jewelers.

"You would look lovely in blue." Taurion commented as she sat back down. Kida looked up and saw that he was looking at her hand, the blue jewel in her ring, before his eyes turned to his son. "Perhaps you may save a dance for my son?"

Nostalrion looked embarrassed at his father's words. "I would love to." Kida said honestly, but not until she had time to flounder about with Merry, without embarrassment, to learn the dance. "If you would like to, Nostal."

It was the nick name that both Taurion and Iauron insisted she called the young elf, who was in fact a full year younger than Kida was. "Yes, I would like to." He mumbled, working on the ring without looking at her.

"Here, Lady Valentine." Iauron handed her a piece of black velvet cloth. She took it, the soft cloth nurturing to her calloused hands. "Wrap your ring, and I shall keep it safe for you until tomorrow."

She placed the wax ring and gems in the middle of the cloth, wrapping it carefully. As it sat there, on the table and wrapped up, Kida cleaned all the tools she used of wax and gave kind goodbye's to the hospitable family of elves. When she returned to her tent there were three elves inside the open area with many different dresses, in color and cloth. They ushered her in without explanation and closed the tent doors.

As they laid out the dresses and slips, robes and skirts, Kida was quick to comment. "I want to wear blue." She thought of Taurion's comment and had to trust his judgement.

"Of course." One of the elleths agreed for them all as they made her strip. Kida had grown to get over her modesty in the time passing, based on a lack of privacy traveling with the fellowship and how much the elves in Caras Galadhon made her undress.

There was less to choose from with blue as a color option which made getting ready easier, but not quicker. Kida was surprised how much went into the dress, expecting one like before, on her first day. Instead, she was forced into elven formal wear. A long slip, a long blue dress, and a one shade darker blue cover of lace that was only sleeves and the back of the dress, attached to her by a ribbon around her waist. Kida felt ridiculous. She had gone to her own prom in shorts and a dress shirt, weddings in vest and pants, and every where else in simple jeans.

Now she was fully formal, as they put flat slippers on her feet and placed a circlet on her forehead. Head to toe, Kida was no longer herself, save for the scars upon her cheeks that were now three weeks old. As on elf brushed and braided a part of her hair, Kida had to ask.

"What is the party for?"

The other two elves folded the clothes Kida wasn't wearing, ignoring her, but the one braiding the front of her hair responded. "It is for your fellowship." She explained. "Shame that you are so marred when you are dressed so beautifully."

Kida was slightly offended. But she had to ignore it. Here women didn't fight, she knew that, so the fact that she had, and had been harmed, was not something to make her popular. She said nothing and let the elleth finish her job without asking another question. When left alone, Kida waited a moment so that those elves wouldn't be there when she left the tent, before she opened the flap.

"Oh, sorry!" Kida squeaked as she almost ran right into Merry. He seemed as shocked at the sudden appearance of someone else as she was.

Her date for the evening was looking well in burgundy and gold. A near opposite of her blue and white, but Kida loved Merry's outfit, and how confident he seemed to feel in it. She remembered enough of the story, of him, to know this was not every day wear for anyone in the Shire. The hobbit looked her over and she did to him, before bowing slightly.

"You look great, Kida." He complimented her and charmingly smiled at her, his usual crooked smile.

Kida giggled and curtsied properly. "As do you, Merry." She returned the kindness with honesty and returned to a stand from her formal curtsy. "So do you know when the party is supposed to start?"

He looked uncertain. "No. Far as I know we're all meeting uphill." Merry told her and nodded his head in the right direction. "Shall we?"

"We shall!" She acted bright though she already wanted out of the dress she was in. It wasn't uncomfortable, not really, but she felt out of her nature, odd and imbalanced.

They walked up hill, to the largest tree in Caras Galadhon that Kida had yet to see. If it was really a celebration and the city was going to be there, than it likely had to be a _very_ large on with an equally massive room to accommodate them. They were the last of the group to arrived, and Kida wasn't surprised considering she was apparently missing most of the day, and had taken forever to get ready. Everyone was dressed in the best of clothing, though Gimli's wear was hardly any different than he was battle ready, save for some chain mail.

The hobbits looked similar in style, but the color was different pertaining to each one. Kida thought Boromir looked particularly handsome in his outfit, on shoulder sporting the symbol of Gondor. Legolas wore a robe over his clothes and Kida couldn't tell what it was yet. As for Aragorn, her heart skipped a beat. The man had on such normal clothing that it was unfair how well he looked. His pants were just pants, black, and his shirt was a dark blue/grey. He wore a long jacket over it, but left it open. Such little effort had been put it to look good, but he stole the show.

Galadriel then stood before them with Celeborn. "You may now enter and stand before the people of Caras Galadhon." Celeborn spoke to them.

The two elves in pure white led the way as partners. In a single file line Aragorn entered, followed by Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, Sam, Frodo, and Pippin. But Kida and Merry were side by side, so different in height but uncaring as they entered last. They walked to the front with the rest, but as the hobbits stood on one side and the others on the opposite side, Kida found herself in the middle of the line at the back of the grand hall.

They stood and while she hadn't noticed the endless crowd of well dressed elves walking in, she certainly saw them now. Standing at the sides of the rooms, watching in silence as the fellowship waited in confusion as to what was meant to happen. Celeborn began to make a speech in elvish, and while Kida recognized some ofd the words he said her mind could not keep up with what was coming out. She had no idea what the speech included, but soon the elves were clapping politely. The next moment, music started, soft and sweet, from the back of the room. By the doors that they had entered from.

A few pairs of elves began to dance and Kida could only see that it was similar to a waltz. She had no idea how to waltz, but Kida had seen enough formal dancing in movies (disney included, shamefully) to identify it. Gimli was the first of the fellowship to walk off, Pippin following him, towards the food table of all places. Kida noticed a few elf women coming up and asking the others to dance, but wished she hadn't seen the very beautiful one in particular who Aragorn went off with.

She had never been jealous, not made that way by any number of girls who hung around her ex-boyfriends. It felt horrible to be the jealous type.

"Shall we dance?" Merry asked Kida and she stopped staring as the man she liked began to dance with an elleth she did not know and did not like.

She nodded, feeling the small hanging jewel of her circlet bounce on her forehead. "Of course." She smiled and took Merry's offered hand.

Dancing with someone that was barely more than half your height was actually a very fun experience. They held hands and twirled about with out rhythm or reason. Merry got frustrated with their slow dancing but put up with it until the song got more up beat. Then he taught Kida the skill that was dancing like a drunk hobbit. Lots of fun stomping, turning, hopping and cheer. Laughing, she held her dress up from her feet and did what could only be described as a _jig_.

Merry went off to eat something with Pippin after a few dances and Kida strolled away, actually enjoying herself. It was unexpected because she was expecting not to know how to dance, but she was doing fine, and then there was her dress, but that was easy enough to ignore now that she was in a good mood.

Kida was going to subject one of the other men of the fellowship to dance with her, but she found Haldir first. She hadn't seen very much of him since he led the fellowship through the woods of Lorien, but she knew Aragorn had. He talked about the elf like a good friend. So without thinking it through fully, Kida grabbed the lone elf's hands and smiled up at him.

"Dance with me, Haldir!" She spoke excitedly.

He looked far from agreeing, his face a bit stiff, but he did nod at her. "Of course, Lady Valentine." He told her and stepped away from the wall he stood at.

Walking out to the dance floor Kida didn't expect more than a dance out of obligation. Boring, maybe, without much contact, because he did not seem to like her much for making him dance. But Haldir surprised Kida by holding her properly and tight, hand pressed to the small of her back. Taking the lead, the marchwarden spun her in a dance like the other elves did, and she was twisting her feet to keep up with his swooping dance. It was proper _sweep a girl off her feet_ sort of dancing that was, in a few ways, dazzling.

Kida was impressed into silence until the end of it, when Haldir stopped dancing and let her go. Then all she could say was, "Wow," as he walked away.

When the next dance began Kida stepped off the floor to avoid the elves dancing near her. Like everyone else so far, she went off to get food since she hadn't had a thing since breakfast. Pippin and Merry were still eating, while Gimli had found the elven wine. It certainly sounded like a party over at the food table, the hobbits goofing off and Gimli loudly telling stories to any elf that had passed by. Not that they ever stayed to listen to his tales about the dwarf kind.

She only ate enough to keep her stomach from growling and then took Pippin for a spin around the dance floor. They were just swinging and stumbling about with each other happily. As soon as the song ended there was a small tap on her shoulder, and Kida turned to Legolas. He bowed down and then held his hand out.

"May I?" He asked and Kida put her hand in his. Legolas held her carefully and she danced with him in a very uniform set of steps, like the elves around them.

For a moment they were in kind silence. "This is actually a fun party." Kida spoke quietly, looking up at her friend. "I have been to dances but they're never like this."

"I have attended many, for all different reasons, but this one is above them all." Legolas agreed and spun in a small circle. She hadn't realized it, but he probably had been to many. Due to his age and status, there had to be many reasons to have parties or attend them. "I am glad that you are having fun, as well."

She smiled at him. They talked lightly about the party until the song ended an another elf woman stole Legolas away from her. Kida walked through the moving couples on the dance floor, fingering the end of the braid along the front of her hair. Part of her was really hoping to find Aragorn and get at least one dance out of him, though she wanted a lot more, but she felt like she was keeping a secret considering she was making his something. Also it would save her from having to see him with any other woman for a moment, as well as give her a minute to talk to him for the first time in what felt like days.

By the outer edge of the room, trying to get a better look at the dance floor, Kida accidentally bumped into someone. As she began to apologize the elf just put a hand on her shoulder. "It is fine, neth min._ (young one)_" He told her.

"Iauron." She smiled and stopped floundering. He smiled down at her and took his hand from her shoulder. Kida looked around him. "It's good to see you, but where is Nostal? I think I owe him a dance."

Iauron held a gesturing hand out to the other side of the room, locating his grandson. "He is once again watching the woman Taurion tells me he likes." The elf man gossiped and Kida was excited to locate Nostalrion.

He was, in fact, watching an equally young elf dance with an older elf, though the girl did not look interested in anyone at all. Kida was interested to see what kind of woman was in Nostalrion's taste. Slightly darker hair, with a heart shaped face, though any other details were hard to see from across the room.

Kida patted Iauron's arm. "I will see you tomorrow, mellon nin. _(my friend)_ I'm going to bother Nostal." She said a farewell and walked across the room.

Along the way she finally found Aragorn. He was talking to someone, but they seemed to be very formal and uninterested in each other, so Kida went up to him and interrupted. Only, while she wanted to spend time with him, she wasn't interrupting for a dance quite yet. She just grabbed his arm when the elf left them and began to point out the small, young girl that Nostalrion was still staring at.

"Will you dance with her? Please?" Kida asked him, plotting. He saw the girl that she was mentioning, and looked confused.

"Why?" He asked her. "I have not even danced with you yet." His look was warm and Kida felt very flirted with.

She bumped him with her shoulder and just kept down her urge to jump him. "I'll dance with you next." She gave him a pleading look.

Aragorn chuckled and moved to the elf. Kida followed but then went off quickly towards Nostalrion before getting too near the girl. As she got near him she saw his disappointed expression and glanced over to see that Aragorn was already asking that girl to dance with him. His eyes caught Kida's and she smiled before turning back to the elf boy who had yet to notice her.

"Nostal, want to dance?" Kida asked kindly to the son of jewelers. He seemed a bit nervous that she would even ask, or embarrassed at being caught staring.

But as she put her hand out for him, he calmed lightly and took it. Out of all the people that she had danced with, he was the only one that had been predictable. Slow, nervous to touch her, and while moving elegantly in a circle, was still awkward. Kida didn't mind dancing with him, but she had a plan and wanted to get through with it before the song ended. Her mind barely picked up on the idle chit chat he was making and Kida took a lead to push him closer to Aragorn and the girl.

She actually made herself bump into him but tried not to look like it was on purpose. He turned and she acted like she was sorry before pulling Nostalrion to her side. With a bit of babble that she was certain neither of the other three understood she had manged to switch partners and dance away with Aragorn. As the man danced her away she got one glance of Nostalrion nervously taking the offered hand of his crush. She laughed and leaned into Aragorn's chest, glad she was finally dancing with him as well as proud for Nostalrion.

"How do you know that elf?" Aragorn asked her as he tightened his hold around her waist.

Through the layers of her clothes and his, the body warmth was barely present, and Kida inwardly longed for it. Just enough to make her blush. She answered slowly. "We met yesterday. I never thought I would ever meet an elf as clumsy as him."

Even in her ears that sounded like a diverting answer. She began to ramble. "He's Nostal, Taurion's son, who is Iauron's son. They are all jewelers, and Iauron and Nostal are teaching me to make rings. See, I made this."

Kida flashed her right hand in front of his face to show off the badly crafted ring. Aragorn was laughing at her desperate blurting as he looked at the ring. "It is very good for the first ring you have made. Will you be making more?"

Her lips pressed into a line to keep it a secret. "Maybe."

She danced with Aragorn through most of the night after that. It was the most fun she had ever had going anywhere social, fairs included. They separated at night with him barely brushing her scarred cheek with a kiss.


End file.
